North Central Opens NCAA Tourney in St. Louis

Submitted by North Central College

The men's basketball team will open play in the 2012 NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Championship on Friday at Washington University in St. Louis, taking on Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (Ind.) in the first round.

The Cardinals (20-7) won the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) Tournament Championship on Saturday, defeating 22nd-ranked Wheaton College, 75-58, in the final. The win secured the CCIW's automatic bid to the Division III Championship for North Central, which will be making its first appearance in the national tournament since 2006 and its sixth appearance overall.

Rose-Hulman (20-8) earned its bid to the Championship by winning the Heartland Collegiate Conference Tournament last weekend, defeating top-seeded and 16th-ranked Transylvania University (Ky.) in the championship game, 76-73. The Fightin' Engineers are making their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1999. North Central and Rose-Hulman have never competed against each other in men's basketball.

Friday's other first-round game at Washington will feature the host Bears (19-6) against the Buena Vista University (Iowa) Beavers. Washington qualified for the event as the champion of the University Athletic Association, while Buena Vista made the field after defeating Coe College (Iowa), 54-52, in the final of the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament. Washington is making its fifth NCAA Tournament appearance in the last six seasons and won national championships in 2008 and 2009. Buena Vista (17-10) is in the tournament for the ninth time in the past 16 seasons.

North Central and Rose-Hulman will tip off at 5:30 p.m. at WU Field House on Friday, followed by Washington and Buena Vista at 7:30. The two winners will meet in Saturday's second-round game at 7:00 p.m. Washington will be offering live video (http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/wustl.portal#) and in-game statistics (http://bearsports-livestats.wustl.edu/Basketball/xlive.htm) for each game, and North Central's participation in the tournament will be feature live audio on 89.1-FM WONC and wonc.org.

Ticket information will be made public as soon as it is available.