AASU Men's Basketball Earns NCAA Championships Bid

SAVANNAH, Ga. - The No. 23-ranked Armstrong Atlantic State men's basketball team has been awarded an at-large berth to the 2009 NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Championships, released tonight by the NCAA.

The Pirates (23-6) are the No. 3 seed in the Southeast Regional and will take on No. 6 seed Catawba (20-9) in a first-round game on Saturday, March 14, in Augusta, Ga. The two teams have not met this season and have only met one time previously, on Dec. 1, 2006, when the Pirates took a 94-86 win in the 2006 Walt Baker Classic in Salisbury, N.C.

The bid is the fourth for the Pirates in the last six seasons and the eighth overall for AASU men's basketball. The No. 3 seed is the second-highest for the Pirates in the Peach Belt era - AASU was the No. 2 seed in the then-South Atlantic Regional in 2006.

The rest of the first-round matchups include: No. 1 seed and host Augusta State (26-4) against No. 8 seed Tusculum (20-9), No. 4 seed GCSU (22-6) against No. 5 seed Barton (24-6), and No. 2 seed USC Aiken (23-7) against No. 7 seed Lenoir-Rhyne (18-10) 

Game times will be announced on an NCAA Conference Call on Monday morning.