Men's Basketball 3/12/2014 2:29:00 PM

Win Or Go Home

NORFOLK, Va. – The Savannah State men's and women's programs will put it all on the line tomorrow for the quarterfinals of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) tournament.

The Tigers are set to play Norfolk State at 8 p.m. after beating South Carolina State in the opening game on Monday, 61-47.

SSU fell to the Spartans in the team's only meeting this year. Norfolk downed the Tigers 56-49 in Savannah on January 27.

The Tigers have had an up-and-down season. After a 10-game losing streak to nonconference teams was busted with a 66-42 rout of Maryland Eastern Shore, the Tigers opened a five game, MEAC win streak.

They closed out the season with a 10-6 conference record, and handled South Carolina State with ease in their last two games. The No. 5 seeded Tigers will be tested on Thursday. Norfolk claimed the No. 4 seed after an 11-5 conference mark.

The winner of Thursday's game will see the winner of the North Carolina Central and Howard game today at 6 p.m. The No. 1 seeded Eagles are favored to make it past No. 8 Howard, but the curse of first remains.

In the last two years of the MEAC tournament the No. 1 seed as gone down in their first game. If SSU can get past Norfolk State, Howard could be between them and the finals. SSU beat the Bison 56-54 back in January.

Anything can happen today and tomorrow, but a road can be paved and SSU has the talent to lay the ground work with a solid outing on Thursday.

In a mirror image of the men's team, the Lady Tigers closed out a historic season with a 10-6 conference record for a No. 5 seed in the MEAC tournament. Their 16-13 overall record was the best in the program's Division I era (since 2002-03).

The Lady Tigers garnered the program's first MEAC tournament win on Monday with an 81-72 win over Morgan State. They are set to see Florida A&M on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. for the third time this season.

SSU easily handled the Lady Rattlers in Tiger Arena on January 20 with an 80-68 win, but struggled in Tallahassee, falling 72-78.

SSU and FAMU finished with the same conference record, but the Lady Rattlers beat North Carolina A&T (a higher ranked team) to earn the No. 4 seed in the tournament.

The winner of Thursday's match will play the winner of today's Hampton vs. Howard game. Hampton went 16-0 during the regular season. The Lady Pirates are looking to five-peat in the MEAC. The curse of first does not apply to the women's side of the tournament.

If SSU can escape Florida A&M on Thursday, and 2014 MEAC player of the year Jasmine Grice, there is a chance they will see the favored Lady Pirates on Friday in the semifinals.

The Lady Tigers fell to Hampton 46-70 in Tiger Arena during the regular season. SSU beat Howard 65-49, for the first time in the program's history in January.

Both the men's and women's SSU basketball teams have never made to the semifinals of the tournament in the schools three years of competition within the MEAC.

History could be made on Thursday, or we could all go home.

Men's Bracket
Women's Bracket

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