March 7, 2010

Complete 2010 NCAA DII Men's Basketball Bracket
The Sun: From 7th Seed to 7th Heaven
Boston Herald: Freshman Paces Lowell to NE-10 Title
Boston Globe: Lowell is Toast of the Northeast-10

In a rematch of the 2010 Northeast-10 Tournament Semifinal, the #6 UMass Lowell River Hawks (20-11) will take on #3 Merrimack (20-8) in the first round of the 2010 Division II Men's Basketball NCAA Tournament, as announced by the NCAA on Sunday night. The tilt will be played on Saturday, March 13 at 12:00 pm at Stonehill College in Easton, Mass.

"We are obviously ecstatic to be going to the NCAA Tournament again," head coach Greg Herenda said. "We are looking forward to representing our university, our alums and all of our River Hawk fans. We have had some recent successes at Stonehill's gym and I hope it continues."

This marks UMass Lowell's eighth trip to the dance in program history, and second time in as many years. The River Hawks (then Chiefs) earned their first bid to the Tournament in 1988 and played to the program's first National Championship. Since then, UMass Lowell has made appearances in the tournament in 2001 and 2002, winning the Region in 2003 and 2004, and advancing to the Regional final in 2006. UMass Lowell is 6-1 in first round play, and 15-6 all-time in the big dance.

A case of déjà vu, the River Hawks and Warriors faced one another in the first round of last year's NCAA Tournament, as well, while Merrimack came away with the 86-84 overtime victory.

"To play your cross-town rival four times in a season is unique," Herenda said. "But we are very excited to be playing in March in the East Regionals."

Merrimack owns the 28-21 all-time record against the River Hawks and topped UMass Lowell in both regular season meetings. Most recently, however, UMass Lowell defeated the Warriors 80-70 in the NE-10 Tournament Semifinal on March 4. The teams have met five times in the post-season, while UMass Lowell owns the 3-2 advantage. Four of those meetings came in the conference tournament, while last year's meeting in the East Regional was the squads' first and only meeting in the NCAA Tournament.

The River Hawks earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament by capturing the Northeast-10 Tournament Championship with a 73-58 victory over Adelphi on Saturday at home. UMass Lowell was the seventh seed in the tournament, while the Panthers were ninth.

"Our team just had a great run in the Northeast-10 Tournament and we are playing really good basketball right now," Herenda said.

Three other member schools from the NE-10 are playing in the East Region, including host-school and top-seeded Stonehill (23-5), #2 Bentley (22-6) and #5 Saint Anselm (20-10). The Skyhawks will take on Felician (24-6), while Saint Anselm plays Philadelphia University (25-7). Bentley will take on Bridgeport (23-8) to finish out the regional bracket.

The East Region games will be played on March 13, 14 and 16 at Stonehill College's Merkert Gymnasium. The winner of the Region will advance to the Elite Eight, to be played at the MassMutual Center in Springfield, Mass. Ticket prices for the games played at Stonehill are $10 for general admission adult tickets and $5 for students and senior citizens.