Bart Valentine and his Warner Pacific Knights kick off CCC action in the NAIA tournament Wednesday at 11:45 a.m. PT.
NAIA Men's Hoop Bracket Released; EOU (7), OIT (11) Seeded
Click here for the full tournament bracket.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Two of the three teams representing the Cascade Collegiate Conference in next week’s NAIA men’s basketball championships earned top 16 seeds in the 32-team tournament, the national office announced Wednesday.
Regular season CCC champion Eastern Oregon (25-5) is seeded seventh and will open against Edwards Waters (Fla.) Wednesday at 3:45 p.m. PT. Edward Waters is 20-11 overall and captured the Florida Sun tournament championship. The Mountaineers, ranked fifth in the final poll of the season, is making the school’s first trip to the NAIA national tournament.
Regular season CCC runner-up Oregon Tech (26-6), which received an at-large bid to the tournament, is seeded 11th and will face Mount Vernon Nazarene (Ohio) in its opening game Thursday at 5:30 p.m. PT. Mount Vernon Nazarene, an at-large entrant, is 23-7 overall. OIT was ranked eighth in the final NAIA Top 25 poll.
The CCC’s other representative, Warner Pacific (22-10), is unseeded and will open against ninth-seeded Bethel (Ind.) Wednesday at 11:45 a.m. PT. Bethel, 27-6 overall, won the Mid Central College tournament title.