Tuesday, March 11, 2014

MEAC and SWAC Basketball Tournaments Tip Off; CIAA and SIAC Champs and NCAA Teams Determined

By ADD SEYMOUR JR.

The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) and the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) have both crowed their mens and womens conference champions.  Now it's time for the Division I HBCU teams to find their place in the Big Dance.

Four games are on tap today in the Southwestern Athletic Conference mens and womens basketball tournament, leading up to Saturday's championship games.  Women's teams from Florida A&M, Maryland-Eastern Shore and Savannah State won first round Mid Eastern Athletic Conference tournament games Monday.  On the mens side, Savannah State and Morgan State made it through to the next round.

The two tournaments follow last weeks SIAC tournament (won by Tuskegee's men and Benedict women's) and CIAA tournament (won by Livingstone's men for the first time and the Shaw women's fourth straight title).

Tuskegee (18-11) are the eighth seed in the NCAA Division II Basketball Tournament. The Golden Tigers take on Florida Southern College Saturday in a first round game.

Benedict (20-9) and Albany State (20-6) will be in the women's tournament.  Benedict is an eighth-seed while Albany State is seeded fifth.  Their first round games will be played Friday in Fort Lauderdale.

Eighth-seeded Livingstone faces top seed East Stroudsburg in Saturday's first round action.

The Shaw women will be a sixth seed when they take on Gannon Friday while the ladies of Virginia State face Bloomsburg the same day.   The Lady Trojans are seeded fifth, even though they lost to Shaw twice this season.

Follow us on Twitter (@AddsHBCUSports) to keep up with the latest tournament scores.