Davenport and
Lourdes earned the two automatic berths for the
Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) while
Indiana Tech and defending national champion
Cornerstone received at-large berths to the
21st Annual NAIA Division II Men's Basketball National Championship. Davenport, the tournament's third overall seed, drew a 4 p.m. game on Thursday, March 8 against unseeded William Penn (Iowa) (17-14). The Panthers stormed through the year and won both the regular season league title and the conference tournament. It's the highest seed for DU as the Panthers make their third trip.
Lourdes (17-15) also plays Thursday in a tough match up with second-seeded Oregon Tech (29-4). The Gray Wolves, in just their second season of competition, qualified for nationals as the conference tournament runner up.
Indiana Tech (23-7) makes its sixth national appearance and faces the No. 12 seed St. Thomas (Fla.) (22-8) on Wednesday, March 7 at 5:45 p.m. The Warriors, ranked 12th in the final rating, received an at-large berth after losing to Davenport in the semifinals of the WHAC tournament.
Cornerstone's national title defense starts with a 10:15 morning game against eighth-seeded Northwest (Wash.) (27-4). The Golden Eagles (19-12) qualifed as an at-large after appearing in the final rating at No. 25 and are making their 11th trip to the national tournament. Cornerstone joins Northwestern (Iowa) and Oregon Tech as the only teams in the bracket with two national crowns each. Three other qualifiers have one national championship each: Grace (Ind.), College of the Ozarks (Mo.), and St. Francis (Ind.).
The tournament, hosted by College of the Ozarks (Mo.) is in its 13th year at Keeter Gymnasium in Point Lookout. The 32-team tournament continues to be a unique experience for teams and fans with the support of the community.
The first 30 matches will be available via live video stream from NeuLion for $29.95 and any single day can be purchased for $9.95. Also, one can purchase the all-tournament package of all four basketball tournaments for $49.95. For more information and to pre-register, click
here.