E8 Tournament Field Set for Men's Basketball
It came down to the final weekend of the Empire 8 regular season to determine the seeding for the 2017 Men's Basketball Tournament .
St. John Fisher College secured the top seed and hosting rights for the third straight season. The Cardinals finished the regular season with a 15-1 conference mark, its only loss coming against fourth seeded Nazareth College.
Stevens Institute of Technology secured the second seed with an 11-5 conference record, winning its final regular season game in overtime to snap a three game conference losing skid.
Utica College won its last four conference games to finish as the third seed with a league record of 10-6.
Nazareth and Hartwick College both finished with a 9-7 conference record mark forcing tiebreaker criteria to decide the final seed. The two teams split head to head in the regular season, but since Nazareth earned a win over top seeded Fisher in the regular season, while Hartwick lost twice to the Cardinals the advantage went to the Golden Flyers.
The two semifinals matches will take place on Friday, Feb. 24 at Fisher. The two winners will meet on Saturday, February 25 in the Empire 8 Championship with the winner earning an automatic bid and advancing to the 2017 NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament.
Friday, February 24
No. 1 Fisher v No. 4 Nazareth, 6:00 pm
No. 2 Stevens v No. 3 Utica, 8:00 pm
Saturday, February 25
Championship will begin at 4:00 pm