Landmark Sends Four Teams To NCAA Basketball Tournaments
MADISON, N.J. - Four Landmark Conference basketball have earned the right to compete for a national championship as they have earned spots in the NCAA Division III Basketball Tournament. Tournament play will begin with one Landmark team playing Thursday in the men's championship and the remaining three teams playing on Friday. Second round games will all be on Saturday and game times have not been announced for any of the first round games.
Landmark Conference Champions The University of Scranton claimed bids in both the men's and women's championship while the Moravian College men's team and the Juniata College women's team both also earned spots in the championship field. As a first-year Division III Conference Landmark champions were not eligible to earn automatic bids to the NCAA field, but the teams were eligible to earn either Pool B (Independents) or Pool C (At-Large) bids. All four Landmark teams were selected as Pool B entries.
The Scranton women's basketball team is making its 23rd consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament after the Royals finished the season with a record of 21-5. Scranton will host the first and second-round games and will take on Medaille College, the champion of the Allegheny Mountain Conference, on Friday March 7. The University of Rochester and Eastern Connecticut State University are the other two teams competing at Scranton over the weekend. The Royals claimed the Landmark Championship with a 52-50 win over Juniata College and enter NCAA play having won 15 straight games. Scranton has seven national semifinal appearances and one national championship in its tournament history.
The Juniata women's team will be making just its second NCAA Tournament appearance after claiming its Pool B selection. The Eagles finished the season 18-9 and will take on Hope College (27-0) in their first round game in Berea Ohio on the campus of Baldwin-Wallace University. Host Baldwin-Wallace will take on D'Youville College in the other first-round game at that site. Juniata's only other NCAA Tournament appearance came in 1986 when the Eagles were defeated by Scranton. Juniata has won six of its last seven games and features a trio of All-Landmark performers.
The Scranton men's team is back in the NCAA field after claiming its 18th conference championship with a win over Juniata in the Landmark Championship. Scranton is in the NCAA Tournament for the 20th time and will face Elms College in a first-round game held at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pa. Gettysburg will face off with Salem State in the other first-round game at that site. The Royals were the preseason favorite in the Landmark Conference and closed the year with a record of 19-8 and won nine of their last 10 down the stretch.
Like the Juniata women's team, the Moravian men's squad will be making just its second NCAA Tournament appearance when the Greyhounds host John Jay College (13-15) on Thursday night. With a win, the Greyhounds, who hold a record of 18-8, would move on to play defending national champion Amherst College who is 23-3 on the season. Moravian's only other NCAA tournament appearance came in the 1982-83 season. Moravian's season featured a nine-game winning streak and saw the team come win away from matching the program record for wins in a season.