Sun Conference Announces Men's Basketball Tournament Bracket
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - The 2013-14 Sun Conference men's basketball regular season concluded on Monday and the St. Thomas Bobcats claimed the title with a 16-2 conference mark, the best league record since 2010-11 when Northwood finished 16-0. The 11th-ranked Bobcats will own home-court advantage throughout the 10-team tournament, and with a win in their quarterfinal game, will host the semifinals in finals in Miami Gardens, Fla.
All 10 Sun Conference teams will participate in the tournament, beginning with a pair of play-in games on Thursday, Feb. 27, followed by the quarterfinals on Saturday, March 1 and concluding with the semifinals and championship game March 3-4.
Seventh-seeded Webber International will host the first play-in game in Babson Park, Fla. when they welcome cross-lake rival Warner on Thursday. The Warriors finished 5-13 in league play and and were on of just two teams to beat regular season champion St. Thomas during the year. WIU will look to Aaron Terry on the offensive end as the forward has averaged 13. points and 8.0 rebounds since joining the Warriors at the mid-point of the season.
Warner, the tournament's 10th-seeded team, finished the season 4-14 in conference action and 11-18 overall. The Royals have made the third-most three-pointers in the league, paced by Mitch Rice's 65 treys in 163 attempts. Eddie Delegal leads the team with 14.9 points and 6.0 rebounds per contest.
The second play-in game features eight-seeded Ave Maria and ninth-seeded Florida Memorial. The Gyrenes host the Lions in Ave Maria for the right to take on top-seeded St. Thomas. AMU went 5-13 in league play while Florida Memorial finished at 4-14. The Gyrenes have one of the leading scorers in the conference in Matt Chattin. The guard averages 19.5 points for AMU, shooting 50-percent from the floor and 45-percent from the three-point area.
Florida Memorial has seven players that average at least 20 minutes per game and the Lions' leading scorer is Samuel Dorismond who pours in 11.1 points per game for FMU.
The winner of the Webber International/Warner play-in game will travel to Southeastern to take on the Fire in one of four Saturday quarterfinals. The Fire finished the season 14-4 in The Sun Conference, at one point 10-game winning streak with wins over St. Thomas, Northwood and Embry-Riddle. SEU boasts one of the best offenses in the country, led by Dwayne Johnson's 19.8 points and 5.1 assists per game. Timothy Mitchell pulls down 9.8 boards and adds 14.0 points per game for the Fire.
St. Thomas awaits the winner of Ave Maria and Florida Memorial in the second quarterfinal. The Bobcats have five players that average double figures on the offensive end, led by Floyd Battle's 15.2 points and Kevin Hincapie's 12.7 points. STU ranks No. 1 in the country in steals per game with 11.1 and is in the top 20 in the country in offensive field goal percentage at 49-percent per contest. St. Thomas has won eight straight games and 12 of its last 13.
The Northwood Seahawks are the No. 3 seed in the tournament, going 14-4 in the league in 2013-14. NU features one of the best 1-2 punches in the country with Chris Solomon and Fred Mattison. Solomon averages 20.6 points per game while Mattison brings 15.3 points and 9.2 rebounds to the Northwood effort. The Seahawks will host sixth-seeded Johnson & Wales, a team they beat by 22 at home during the regular season.
JWU went 6-12 in The Sun Conference, thanks in large part to the play of Myles Smith and Quentin Tate. Smith averages 17.0 points while Tate averages 10.8 points and 5.2 rebounds for the Wildcats. JWU has connected on a league-leading 212 three-pointers this season.
The final quarterfinal matchup on Saturday will take place in Daytona Beach, Fla. as the fourth-seeded and defending tournament champions Embry-Riddle Eagles host conference newcomer and fifth-seeded Thomas Night Hawks. The Eagles have stat-stuffer DeForest Carter in the backcourt, averaging 14.6 points, 6.0 assists, 4.6 rebounds and 2.7 steals for the Blue and Gold. Freshman Dalton Barnes is second on the team with 12.7 points while also grabbing 4.9 rebounds per game.
The Sun Conference's leading scorer is Thomas' Justyn Watkins at 23.7 points per game. The Night Hawks finished 9-9 in their first year of Sun Conference competition. Watkins is aided by Max Grace (12.8 ppg) and Trey Gosier (11.0 ppg) on the offensive end while Andrea Robinson pulls down 8.0 rebounds for TU.
The four winners of the quarterfinals will advance to the semifinals, hosted by the highest-remaining seed with the semifinals taking place on Monday, March 3 and the championship game being held on Tuesday, March 4.
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Tournament Headquarters for all the information pertaining to the 2013-14 Sun Conference Men's Basketball Tournament.