ROCK HILL, S.C. - After being picked to finish fifth in the South Atlantic Conference Coaches' Preseason Poll, the Anderson men's basketball team claimed the second seed in the 2013 Food Lion SAC Men's Basketball Championship with its win past Mars Hill on Saturday.
Anderson (18-8) and Wingate (18-8) finished tied in the league standings at 14-4, but the Trojans will be the SAC Championship's No. 2 seed after winning a tiebreaker over the Bulldogs.
Lincoln Memorial clinched its second SAC men's basketball regular-season title in the past three years on Saturday, and will be the No. 1 seed in the upcoming tournament.
Lincoln Memorial beat Catawba Saturday night to secure the outright regular-season SAC title. The Railsplitters - who also won the league in 2010-11 - finished 22-4 overall and 15-3 in the conference, and enter the tournament on a six-game winning streak.
LMU, the top-ranked team in the most recent NCAA southeast regional rankings, will host eighth-seeded Tusculum on Wednesday night in the SAC Championship quarterfinal round. The Railsplitters' victory over Catawba eliminated any possibility of a split regular-season conference title with Anderson and Wingate.
AU and Wingate split head-to-head meetings during the regular season, moving the tiebreaker to the record against the bracket's highest seed. Anderson split its season series with LMU, while Wingate went 0-2.
Anderson will host No. 7 seed Catawba in Wednesday's quarterfinals, while Wingate - last year's SAC Tournament champions - will take on No. 6 seed Newberry.
Carson-Newman is the bracket's No. 4 seed, and will play host to fifth-seeded Lenoir-Rhyne in Wednesday's final quarterfinal matchup.
Following the quarterfinal round, the SAC Championship's semifinals and finals will take place on March 9 and 10 at Timmons Arena in Greenville, S.C.
Quarterfinals - March 6
No. 8 Tusculum at No. 1 Lincoln Memorial, 7 p.m.
No. 7 Catawba at No. 2 Anderson, 8 p.m.
No. 6 Newberry at No. 3 Wingate, 7 p.m.
No. 5 Lenoir-Rhyne at No. 4 Carson-Newman, 7 p.m.
Semifinals - March 9
Semifinal 1, 5:30 p.m.
Semifinal 2, 8 p.m.
Finals - March 10
Championship game, 4:30 p.m.
