The fifth-seeded University of Pittsburgh at Bradford men's basketball team travels to fourth-seeded LaRoche College, Wednesday for an AMCC Championships opening round showdown with the Redhawks at 7 p.m. at the Kerr Fitness Center in Pittsburgh.
The Panthers have won four straight and finished the regular season with an overall record of 11-14, which included a 10-8 record in the AMCC. The Redhawks won their final two games of the regular season, finishing 12-13 overall and 12-6 in the conference.
"I am proud of the team for playing hard all season and putting themselves in a position to be in the playoffs," said Pitt-Bradford head coach Britt Moore. "LaRoche is an outstanding team. They are very well disciplined and well coached. They have some great players and we need to bring out our A-game on Wednesday night."
The two teams met twice in the regular season with LaRoche winning 73-70 in the final seconds at the Kerr Fitness Center, and the Panthers edging the Redhawks 68-67 in the KOA Arena on Feb. 13.
Eric Matheson was the leading scorer for the Panthers in their victory over LaRoche, pouring in 27 points and adding five assists and six boards. Reigning AMCC Player of the Week Evan Greening followed with 18 points and 12 boards in the victory.
Greening and Matheson finished the regular season first and second in scoring in the conference. Greening finished with 20.4 points per game and a conference best 11.9 rebounds per game. Matheson was close behind, averaging 19.8 points per game. Manny Welch is also averaging double-figures with nearly 11 points per game.
Junior forward Arnes Bajgora led the Redhawks 15.4 points per game and 6.7 rebounds per game in the regular season. Bajgora also had a strong game in LaRoche's regular season loss at Pitt-Bradford, scoring 22 points and adding eight boards and one block. Ray Quan phifer adds 9.7 points per game to round out the Redhawk's offense.
The winner of Wednesday night's opening round will move on to face top-seeded Hilbert on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m.
The championship game will be held Sunday at 1 p.m. at Hilbert College regardless of which two teams are playing for the title.
AMCC Championships Bracket
First Round: Wednesday, February 24, 2016
#6 Medaille at #3 Pitt-Greensburg, 7pm
#5 Pitt-Bradford at #4 La Roche, 7pm
#1 Hilbert College (bye) #2 Penn St. Behrend (bye)
Championship Round at Hilbert College
Semifinals: Saturday, February 27, 2016
1:00pm: #1 Hilbert vs. winner of 4v5
3:30pm: #2 Penn St. Behrend vs. winner of 3v6
Finals: Sunday, February 28, 2015 - 1:00 p.m.
