BRACKET | MSC TOURNAMENT CENTRAL

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. -- The rumor is University of Pikeville head coach Kelly Wells will be bringing the coffee, but hopefully his top-seeded Bears won't need it to create a buzz around their 10 a.m. ET matchup with No. 8 Shawnee State (Ohio) in the quarterfinals of the Mid-South Conference Tournament on Friday morning in the East Ky. Expo Center.

UPIKE (27-3, 11-3 MSC), which has already won its fourth MSC Regular-Season title, will be looking for a good start on its quest to a fourth tournament championship as well. The last MSC Tournament Championship for UPIKE came in 2014 and it finished as runner-up last season.

Shawnee State (14-16, 4-10 MSC) tied Cumberland (Tenn.) for eighth place in the league standings, but the Phoenix was the tiebreaker for the seventh seed by splitting with UPIKE during the regular season.

Shawnee came close to a win in Pikeville on Jan. 6 in an 88-84 loss before UPIKE bounced back for a 91-78 win over the Bears on Feb. 1 in Portsmouth, Ohio.

UPIKE enters the postseason with wins in 11 of its last 12 games, including a recent three-game winning streak. On Saturday it took down No. 24 Cumberlands 93-79.

SSU is 2-5 in its last seven games, but that does include a 92-90 overtime win over Georgetown at home. Most recently, the Bears in navy and silver have lost two straight to Cumberlands and Life (Ga.).   

Pikeville will be buzzing, coffee or not, this week as 14 MSC Tournament games will be played over four days in the men's and women's brackets combined.

Other men's games on Friday include No. 4 Life vs. No. 5 Campbellsville at Noon, No. 2 Georgetown vs. No. 7 Cumberland at 2 p.m. and No. 3 Cumberlands vs. No. 6 Lindsey Wilson at 4 p.m.

Saturday's semifinals are scheduled for 2 and 4 p.m. with the men's championship game scheduled for a 4 p.m. tip-off on Sunday.

-UPIKE-