Benedict Seeded No. 3, Faces Central State In SIAC Tournament
ATLANTA (Benedict) – The Benedict College men’s basketball team has earned the No. 3 seed for the 2017 SIAC Basketball Championship and will face Central State University on Tuesday at 3:15 p.m. Central in the Bill Harris Arena in Birmingham, Ala.
The Tigers ended in a three-way tie for first place in the SIAC East Division standings with Claflin and Clark Atlanta. Claflin earned the top seed in the East by going 3-1 against Clark Atlanta and Benedict. In a head-to-head tiebreaker between Clark Atlanta and Benedict, the Panthers earned the No. 2 seed. Benedict and Clark Atlanta split their two regular-season meetings, but Clark Atlanta had the edge by going 1-1 against top-seed Claflin, while Benedict was 0-2 against Claflin.
The Tigers are 15-11 overall and will take on the Marauders, who are the No. 6 seed from the West Division. Central State went 11-17 overall during the regular season and 7-10 in the SIAC. The Tigers took a 69-56 win over Central State in Columbia on Dec. 1 in their conference meeting. The two teams also played a non-conference matchup on Nov. 26 in Akron, Ohio, with Central State winning that meeting 76-70.
The winner between the Benedict vs. Central State contest will advance to face the winner between LeMoyne-Owen, the second seed from the West Division, and Paine, the seventh seed from the East Divison. That second-round game will be played Thursday at 3:15 p.m. Central.
Fans will be able to watch all Benedict College basketball games on the Benedict Boxcast channel. Check www.benedicttigers.com for links to view the video stream.
