SELINSGROVE - The Susquehanna men's basketball team battled its way through a tough weekend to secure a Landmark Conference playoff bid.
Now the Crusaders host Juniata on Saturday with a chance to tie for second place in the league -- but it's complicated.
The Crusaders enter Saturday's finale at 8-5 in the Landmark, behind only Scranton (10-3) and Juniata (9-4). If SU wins Saturday, it would move into a tie with Juniata for second, meaning the No. 2 seed would actually be decided by who finishes sixth in the eight-team conference.
That's right.
The Landmark's tie-break system starts with head-to-head (an SU win means a split), then goes to conference record against teams in order of their standing. Both teams split with Scranton (already locked into a playoff spot), Moravian and Catholic, who are battling it out for the fourth and final playoff berth. Drew and Merchant Marine also play Saturday night and the winner of the game likely finishes sixth.
The significance? Susquehanna swept Merchant Marine, but split with Drew, while Juniata swept Drew and split with Merchant Marine. So if Merchant Marine wins and finishes sixth, SU gets the No. 2 seed and the home game, but if Drew wins Juniata earns the No. 2 slot and SU would travel to Huntingdon next week for the semifinals.
The SU women will not make the Landmark Conference playoffs despite splitting their games over the weekend at home.
The Bucknell men are three games clear of the rest of the Patriot League; a win in any of the final four games clinches homecourt advantage throughout the tournament. Bucknell hosts Lehigh, which is tied with American for second place, Thursday at Sojka Pavilion. The game will be aired live on CBS Sports Network at 7 p.m.
BALANCED ATTACK: After struggling at times to score 40 points during an up-and-down season, the Bucknell women have broken out with balanced scoring in their two recent wins.
In a 22-point romp over Colgate, five different BU players scored at least eight points and three -- Alyssa Dunn, Shelby Romine and Rachel Voss -- were in double figures. Lindsay Horbatuck just missed double figures with nine points but had a game-high 16 rebounds.
Then in Saturday's win at Lafayette, Romine, named Patriot League Player of the Week on Monday, scored a season-high 26 points (11-of-13 from the line), Dunn added 11 and Horbatuck had a double-double with 11 points and 10 boards.
ON THE SMALL SCREEN: Elizabethtown College Athletics is teaming up with ECTV to provide live video streams of the Blue Jays men's and women's basketball games against Lycoming tonight at no cost through the etown.edu website.
Former Shikellamy star Rachael Scheller and Milton standout Ali Derr are starters for the Lycoming women's team, while Danville graduate Michael Rudy is a key reserve for the Lyco men. Former Shikellamy standout Andrew Mantz is a starter for the E-Town men's team. The men play first, starting at 5 p.m. The women tip at 7.
CRUSADER HONORED: Susquehanna University's Ken Schetroma was named the Landmark Conference Men's Field Athlete of the Week after just missing the conference record in the shot put at the Susquehanna Invitational. The Southern Columbia graduate had a pair of top-two finishes, set a new personal best and narrowly missed a conference record with his toss of 15.65 in the shot put.
SPRING GAME SET: The first game of the 2012 Bucknell football season is still nearly seven months away, but the Bison program is already beginning preparations for the upcoming campaign. Bucknell's team's spring practice will begin Friday, March 23, and the 15-session camp concludes with the annual spring game on Saturday, April 21.
All 15 sessions are scheduled to take place in Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium, with 10 practices beginning at 7 p.m. The spring game is an 8 p.m. start.
Bucknell finished 6-5 this past fall.
