Championship Central |
Tournament Bracket
INDIANAPOLIS – The 2020 GLVC Men’s Basketball Championship Tournament bracket was released by the Conference office Saturday evening, following the finale of the 2019-20 regular season. Eight of the league’s 16 schools advanced to the postseason tournament after earning a spot based on the GLVC Point Rating System Rankings. The event will take place at the First Community Arena on the campus of SIU Edwardsville, March 5-8.
With an 86-79 win over the University of Illinois Springfield for the University of Missouri-St. Louis and an 89-67 victory at Missouri S&T for Truman State University, the Tritons and Bulldogs both earned a 16-4 league record and a share of the GLVC Regular Season title. However, 18th-ranked Missouri-St. Louis (25-5, 16-4 GLVC, 4.13 PRS) had the highest Point Rating System ranking to earn the No. 1 seed in the postseason event. The Tritons will begin the tournament on Thursday, March 5 at 6 p.m. Central Time against 8-seed Drury University (20-8, 13-7, 3.50). The Bulldogs narrowly defeated the Panthers on the road earlier in the season on Jan. 9, 72-70, while Drury concluded its regular-season slate with an 84-71 home win over Rockhurst.
Though it didn’t have the record to capture regular-season glory, what the University of Indianapolis (23-5, 15-5) did have was a 4.05 PRS rating, which was good enough to garner the No. 2 seed in next week’s postseason. Fifteenth-ranked UIndy will carry the high of its season-finale road win, 88-76, over 24th-ranked University of Southern Indiana into an 8:30 p.m. quarterfinal nightcap on Thursday, March 5 against No. 7-seed Southwest Baptist University (20-8, 13-7, 3.55). This is the first year of full-time league membership for the Bearcats and, notwithstanding a tiebreaker loss to Rockhurst due to being swept by the Hawks in the regular season, this will be their first-ever GLVC Championship Tournament appearance. On Jan. 25, UIndy defeated Southwest Baptist, 97-78, at home, while SBU concluded its inaugural year of league membership by winning the last game of the 2020 campaign, 71-66, at home over William Jewell.
Truman State (20-8, 16-4, 3.95) enters the tournament as the No. 3 seed and will face No. 6 Rockhurst University (16-12, 12-8, 3.55) in Friday’s first game of the evening session on March 6 at 6 p.m. The Hawks picked up the 6-seed over SBU in a tiebreaker after sweeping the Bearcats with wins on Feb. 15 (73-64) and Feb. 27 (63-58). Earlier this year, the Bulldogs and Hawks met twice during the regular season, each winning at home, including Jan. 4 at Rockhurst (56-53) and Jan. 30 at Truman (81-60).
No. 4 seed Southern Indiana (21-7, 13-7, 3.85) will square off against No. 5 Bellarmine University (20-7, 13-7, 3.83) in the last quarterfinal of the postseason on Friday, March 6 at 8:30 p.m. USI dropped its regular-season finale, while Bellarmine fell 94-83 at home to McKendree in its last game. The Knights completed a sweep of the Screaming Eagles this year with a 79-65 road win on Jan. 11 and a 78-63 home victory on Feb. 27.
Both the women’s and men’s semifinals will commence on Saturday, March 7, as the women take to the court at noon and 2:30 p.m., followed by the men at 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.
The women’s GLVC Champion will be crowned at 1 p.m. on Sunday, March 8, followed by the men’s final at 3:30 p.m.
All-Tournament passes are $45, while Session Flex Passes are $35, allowing access to any two of the first six sessions, excluding Sunday's finals. Single-session tickets are $20 for adults and $5 for students with a valid ID and youth 6-17 in age, while children ages 5 and under are admitted free of charge when accompanied by an adult.
For more information on the 2020 GLVC Basketball Championship Tournaments, log on to
GLVCsports.com/2020hoops.