INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The 2015 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference men's basketball champion, Texas Lutheran University, will make its first ever appearance in the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Championship Tournament as the Bulldogs travel to Marshall, Texas for the first and second round games this weekend. Interactive Bracket | Printable Bracket
Texas Lutheran (18-9, 11-3 SCAC) earned the SCAC automatic bid to the NCAA playoffs after defeating Centenary College in a thrilling match-up that featured 14 ties and 10 lead changes.
The Bulldogs will play Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (21-6) in the first round. The Stags will be returning the tournament after a two year hiatus. The date and time for this game are TBA.
The host school, East Texas Baptist University (23-5) will take on Hendrix College (12-16) in the first round. Hendrix entered the Southern Athletic Association tournament as a No. 6 seed, but defeated all of the top three seeds to earn an automatic bid to the tournament. ETBU hosted the American Southwest Conference tournament and won it, earning a bid of their own.
Forty-three conferences have been granted automatic qualification for the 2015 championship, while 19 other at-large teams from the remaining independent teams and automatic-qualifying conferences who did not receive their conference automatic qualification (Pool C) were selected by using specific selection criteria approved by the Division III Championships Committee.
Two first-round games will be conducted Thursday, March 5 with the winners advancing to play Saturday, March 7 against teams that received first-round byes. Fourteen sites will host four teams for first and second-round competition Friday-Saturday, March 6-7. Second-round winners will advance to one of four sectional-round sites March 13-14. Winners of the four sectional games will advance to the semi-finals and finals March 20 and 21. All games, except the semifinals and finals, will be played on the campuses of competing institutions. The semifinals and finals will be conducted at the Salem Civic Center in Salem, Virginia.
