MEN’S BASKETBALL SECURES EIGHTH SEED IN ECC TOURNAMENT

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (Mar. 2, 2009) – The East Coast Conference recently publicized the bracket for its upcoming men’s basketball tournament, and Molloy College clinched the No. 8 seed. The Lions will head to Brookville, N.Y. on Wednesday night to face top-seeded C.W. Post in a quarterfinal match-up at 7 p.m. The Pioneers, who swept the season series by scores of 104-75 and 95-56, are ranked second in the National Association of Basketball Coaches’ poll.

The winner of that contest will face the victor of the game between fourth-seeded Dowling College and fifth-seeded St. Thomas Aquinas College. The Spartans registered decisions over the Golden Lions in their two meetings. On December 3, they picked up a hard-fought 62-61 victory in Sparkill, N.Y. Then, on January 31, STAC won a 61-56 contest in Oakdale, N.Y. It comes into Wednesday with an overall record of 10-16 and an ECC mark of 8-10. Dowling is 11-16 on the year with a 9-9 league ledger.

The 2/7 game features the University of Bridgeport hosting New York Institute of Technology. The two squads split their matches in 2008-09 – both of which came on the road. The Bears downed the Purple Knights by a 71-63 count on December 6 in Bridgeport, Conn. It was the reverse on Feb. 4 when UB upended NYIT, 64-47, in Old Westbury, N.Y. Overall, the Purple Knights sport a 20-7 ledger overall and a 14-4 mark in the ECC. As for the Bears, they are 13-14 and 8-10 versus league opposition.

Lastly, third-seeded Adelphi University will take on a surging sixth-seeded Queens College team. The Panthers are 19-8 on the season with a 13-5 standing in East Coast Conference action. The Knights have won six of their last seven en route to finishing at 10-17 overall and 8-10 in the league. During the year, AU took both decisions from QC. The Panthers won at home on December 7 by a 76-53 score before coming out victorious, 62-60, in Flushing, N.Y. on February 4.

The winners of their quarterfinal contests will move on to the semifinal round, which is slated to begin on Saturday, March 7, on the Adelphi campus in Garden City, N.Y. Tip-off times are scheduled for 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The two finalists will then meet up on Sunday at 2:30 for a chance to claim the East Coast Conference Championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA Division II Tournament.