Springfield, Ohio — The Wittenberg University men's basketball team has earned an at-large berth into the 2011 NCAA Division III Tournament. The Tigers, who finished the 2010-11 regular season with a 19-8 overall record after losing to Wooster in the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Tournament championship game on Saturday, Feb. 26, will face La Roche College in the first round on Friday, March 4, at Marietta College.
Wittenberg will be making its NCAA Division III-record 25th appearance in the national tournament, but its first since 2006, when the Tigers lost 59-56 in the NCAA Division III Tournament championship game to Virginia Wesleyan College in Salem, Va. Wittenberg also made seven appearances in the NCAA College Division between 1959 and 1974, giving the Tigers 31 all-time national tournament berths.
Marietta, which won the Ohio Athletic Conference tournament championship for the first time in school history, will host first and second round games. After the Tigers square off with La Roche, tournament champion of the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC), the host Pioneers will tip off against Centre College, champion of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference. The winners will play a second round game on Saturday, March 5, for the right to advance to the Round of 16 at a site to be determined.
UPDATE: Wittenberg and La Roche will play at 5 p.m., followed by Marietta and Centre at 8 p.m. The second round game is scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday. Friday will be a split session with single-game adult tickets sold for $6 and students/seniors sold for $3. Tickets will be available day-of-game only at the Marietta ticket office, and the facility will be cleared between games. Gates open at 3:30 p.m. on Friday and 5:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Wittenberg is making its 10th NCAA Division III Tournament appearance in Head Coach Bill Brown's 17 seasons at the helm. His teams have won six NCAC regular season titles and four NCAC Tournament championships, in addition to reaching a pair of NCAA Division III Tournament semifinals (1994 and 2006). Wittenberg holds the NCAA Division III record with seven national semifinal appearances.
The Tigers started the 2010-11 season with a 4-4 record before catching fire, starting with victories over Kean (NJ) and Taylor (Ind.) in the Charles B. Zimmerman Memorial Classic Dec. 29-30 on their home floor. The high point of the season came on Saturday, Feb. 12, when Wittenberg defeated Wooster, 76-72, for their 13th win in 14 games. The Tigers wound up second in the conference regular season standings with a 12-3 record.
The Tigers' first round opponent, La Roche, is making the first NCAA Division III Tournament appearance in program history after winning its first AMCC regular season and tournament titles. The Redhawks are 25-2 overall on the 2010-11 season after beating Penn State-Behrend on newly named Coach Scott Lang Court on Saturday, Feb. 26. Scott Lang was the team's coach for 18 years before passing away suddenly on Dec. 10, 2010. La Roche is currently under the direction of Harry Jenkins, who served as Lang's assistant the previous three years.
Wittenberg's all-time NCAA Tournament record is 61-32, including a College Division national championship in 1961 and an NCAA Division III championship in 1977. The Tigers' record in the NCAA Division III Tournament is 47-24, including a mark of 14-3 in first round games (excluding seven byes).
Written By: Ryan Maurer
Photo By: Erin Pence
011-11