NCAA Announces Division III Basketball Tournament Pairings

Boston, Mass. – Earlier this afternoon, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) released the Division III Men's and Women's Basketball Championship pairings from their headquarters in Indianapolis, Indiana. Representing the Great Northeast Athletic Conference on the Men's side will be Albertus Magnus College and on the Women's side, Emmanuel College.

The Albertus Magnus men's basketball team will head to Reading, Pa. this weekend to face Alvernia University in the First Round of the NCAA Division III men's basketball championship. The match-up will take place on Saturday, March 2 at 7:00 p.m.

The Crusaders are making their eighth appearance in the championships and hosting for the first time since the 2002-03 season. Alvernia (23-4) used a 78-68 win over Lycoming on Saturday afternoon in the Commonwealth Conference Championship game to earn an automatic berth into the tournament.

The Falcons (24-4) are coming off an 87-80 GNAC Tournament Championship victory over Anna Maria College as the Falcons are making their second-straight NCAA Tournament appearance and the third in the last four years.

In the women's bracket, the Emmanuel College Saints are slated to face the University of Rochester Yellowjackets in Rochester, New York this Friday, March 1^st.

Rochester will play host to two NCAA Regional games on Friday evening.  The other game will feature the University of Scranton (19-8) taking on Williams College (22-5).

University of Rochester received a "Pool C" or at-large NCAA bid coming out of the University Athletic Association (UAA).  Rochester was defeated in the final regular season game, falling to Emory University, 65-57.  The Yellowjackets finished the regular season at 19-6 overall, 11-3 UAA.  Rochester is returning to the national tournament after a one-year hiatus.  In 2011, the Yellowjackets went two rounds deep into NCAA play.  Rochester advanced as far as the NCAA Final Four three times ('03, '04, '10) and the Sweet Sixteen three times in consecutive seasons ('05, '06, '07).

Emmanuel is making the program's 18^th NCAA Tournament appearance.  The Saints, 23-5, received an automatic bid to the national tournament, after winning their 7^th-straight Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) title.  Emmanuel advanced as far as the national quarterfinals (Elite Eight) last season.  The Saints have also reached the Final in 2001 and the Sweet Sixteen in 2007.

More details for the NCAA tournament basketball games will be released as they are made available.

*Content provided from Albertus Magnus College & Emmanuel College Sports Information