AU Men's Basketball Will Host Holy Cross on Wednesday in PL Tournament First Round Action
March 3, 2008
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WASHINGTON - The Patriot League Regular Season Champion American University men's basketball team will begin play in the 2008 Patriot League Tournament on Wednesday, March 5, as it welcomes eighth seeded Holy Cross into Bender Arena for a 7:30 p.m. tip off. The Eagles are looking to capture their first PL Tournament Championship and with it their first NCAA Tournament appearance.
American captured its third PL Regular Season Championship in seven years on Saturday with an 84-72 win over Lafayette coupled with a 73-62 Navy loss at Colgate. AU, who entered Saturday tied atop the PL standings with Navy, needed both a win and a Midshipmen loss to win the regular season title outright and capture the tournament's top seed. As the No. 1 seed, AU will have home-court advantage throughout the tournament.
Despite this being American's third PL Regular Season Championship, this will be only the second time in which AU has entered the tournament as the first seed. During the 2003-04 season the Eagles split the regular season title with Lehigh but was the tournament's second seed as the Mountain Hawks earned the top seed due to the tiebreak. American's first regular season championship and only top seed in the tournament came during the 2001-02 season, its first in the League.
AU finished the regular season with an 18-11 overall record and a 10-4 record in the PL, matching the 2001-02 squad for the team's best conference record. After beginning their PL schedule 3-3, the Eagles went on to win seven of their last eight PL games to take over the conference's top spot.
The Eagles have been led on the court this year by its junior guard tandem of Garrison Carr and Derrick Mercer. Carr, an All-PL First Team selection, leads the team in scoring with 18.1 points per game and ranks third in the conference. Carr has done the bulk of his damage from behind the arc where he has made a PL record 117 three-point baskets this season. The previous mark of 99 was set by Army's Mark Lueking in 1996. Mercer, an All-PL Second Team selection, is the Eagles second leading scorer with 12.9 points per game and also averages a team-high 4.1 assists per game. Juniors Brian Gilmore and Bryce Simon average 8.6 and 7.0 points, respectively, while senior Travis Lay leads AU on the boards with an average of 4.4 per game.
Holy Cross, American's first round opponent, was chosen to finish first in the PL Preseason Poll but went just 5-9 in the conference and now occupies the eighth seed. The Crusaders went 15-13 overall this season and won just one of four games down the stretch. Their only win however came against Northeastern as part of the ESPNU BracketBusters as they lost all three PL games to finish the year. Senior forward Tim Clifford leads Holy Cross with 17.8 points per game and also averages 5.4 rebounds per contest. Clifford is complemented by junior Alex Vander Baan in the frontcourt who averages 8.5 points and classmate Colin Cunningham who averages 7.7.
In other PL Quarterfinal action, seventh seeded Bucknell will travel to second seed Navy for a 7 p.m. tip while No. 6 Lafayette visits No. 3 Colgate, also at 7 p.m. Fifth seeded Army will head to fourth seeded Lehigh, also on Wednesday, with that tip off still be to determined.
Tickets are on sale now for American's PL Tournament Quarterfinal game against Holy Cross. Tickets can be purchased through the AU Department of Athletics and Recreation by calling 202-885-TIXX, or by clicking here.
