The Northern State men’s and women’s basketball programs will host first-round games of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference basketball tournaments on Wednesday.
By virtue of their finish in the top four of the NSIC North Division, both programs have secured home-court advantage for the first round. The women finished with the No. 4 seed in the North Division and will host the No. 5 seed from the south, Wayne State. The game is at 6 p.m. at Wachs Arena. The winner of that contest will move on to face the winner of regular-season champion and top seed in the South, Concordia-St. Paul and the No. 8 seed in the North, Minnesota-Crookston.
Wednesday’s match-up with Wayne State will mark the second straight year NSU has drawn a match-up with the Wildcats in the first round of the tournament. The Wolves finished eighth overall in 2011-12 and drew Wayne State to open postseason play in the old tournament format.
The Northern State men wrapped up the No. 2 seed in the North and will hold home-court advantage during the quarterfinal round on Saturday, as well. NSU will host Sioux Falls, the seventh seed in the South, in Wednesday’s first round. The game is at 8 p.m. at Wachs Arena. The winner will face either Augustana (No. 3 South) or Minnesota-Duluth (No. 6 North).
NSU claimed a 74-60 win over USF in the regular-season meeting. That game also took place in Wachs Arena. Saturday’s quarterfinal games will be played on campus sites at the higher seed. Semifinal and championship rounds will be played on March 8-9 in Rochester, Minn.
|NSIC|
|MEN|
Team (Overall)|W L
|North|
St. Cloud State (19-7)…15 7
Northern State (19-10)…14 8
Bemidji State (15-11)…13 9
Moorhead (18-10)…12 10
Minot State (10-16)…9 13
Duluth (8-18)…6 16
Mary (4-22)…3 19
Crookston (4-22)…1 21
|South|
Mankato (22-4)…18 4
Winona (23-6)…17 5
