March 10, 2015

NCAA basketball regionals to include nine Pennsylvania schools

Contact: Kevin Hensil, khensil@passhe.edu

Harrisburg – The National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II Atlantic Regional basketball championships will have a decidedly Pennsylvania look this weekend, with five women’s teams—including top-seeded California University of Pennsylvania—and four men’s teams competing in the combined 16-team field.

All nine teams are members of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, which includes the 14 universities that comprise Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education.
Cal U. earned the top seed in the women’s regional after capturing the PSAC tournament title Sunday afternoon with an 86-70 win over West Chester. The Vulcans will take on eighth-seeded Virginia State Friday night in the first round of the regional.
Other first-round games will feature second-seeded Indiana University of Pennsylvania taking on No. 7 Shepherd University; No. 3 Bloomsburg University against No. 6 Gannon University; and No. 4 West Chester vs. No. 5 West Liberty.
The regional semi-finals will be held Saturday and the finals, Sunday. All games will be played in Hamer Hall on the Cal U. campus.
The regional champion will advance to the NCAA women's Elite Eight, which will be played March 24-27 at Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
West Liberty University will host the men’s regional. The top-seeded Hilltoppers will play eighth-seeded Livingstone in the opening round of the tournament, which will be held Saturday.
In other games, No. 2 seed Gannon University, which captured the PSAC title Sunday afternoon with a win over IUP, will play No. 7 Slippery Rock University; No. 3 IUP will face off against No. 6 Glenville State and No. 5 Mercyhurst will play No. 4 Fairmont State.
The semi-finals will be played Sunday and the final, March 17. The regional champion will advance to the Men's Elite Eight, which will be held March 25-28 at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana.
Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education is the largest provider of higher education in the Commonwealth, with about 110,000 students. The 14 State System universities offer degree and certificate programs in more than 120 areas of study.
The universities are Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester Universities of Pennsylvania. The universities also operates branch campuses in Oil City (Clarion), Freeport and Punxsutawney (IUP) and Clearfield (Lock Haven), and offer classes and programs at several regional centers, including the Dixon University Center in Harrisburg and in Center City in Philadelphia.