SAINT MARY-OF-THE-WOODS, Ind. -- The Saint Mary-of-the-Woods men's basketball team is the No. 2 seed for the River States Conference Tournament and will host No. 3 seeded Shawnee State in a semifinal home game on Saturday, March 2 at 4 pm (ET) inside the Knoerle Center. The Woods is coming an 87-60 victory over IU-Southeast on Wednesday night which saw six different Pomeroys reach double figures scoring including Cobie Barnes who totaled 15 points, eight assists and six rebounds in the winning effort. 

Saint Mary-of-the-Woods is 24-5 on the season with a 17-1 conference mark to place 2nd in the River States Conference point system standings that was used to set the tournament field. They finished with the best record this season in the RSC West Division. The point system is designed to provide balance to the unbalanced conference schedule caused by the presence of an East and West Division. The Pomeroys are riding a 10-game winning streak and have won 18 of their last 19 contests heading into Saturday's matchup.
 
SMWC topped Shawnee State by the score of 80-77 back on January 27 on the road. Barnes paced the Pomeroys in the matchup with 25 points while Shon Tupuola grabbed 16 rebounds in the winning effort.

Saint Mary-of-the-Woods hosted a River States Conference men's basketball tournament game for the first time in program history on Wednesday night with the win over IU-Southeast. The Pomeroys finished 23-5 overall in the regular season under head coach Jesse McClung after being picked to finish last in the RSC in the preseason league coaches poll.  The third-year SMWC men's basketball program had previously compiled 10 wins in 2022-23 and three wins in the inaugural 2021-22 season.

The River States Conference earns two automatic bids to the NAIA National Tournament.  The regular season top seed - Point Park - has secured one of the league's automatic bids.  The second bid will go to the RSC Tournament champion.  If Point Park wins the tournament, the second automatic bid will be earned by the team that competes against Point Park in the RSC Tournament Championship Game.

The full bracket for the 2024 RSC Men's Basketball Tournament is below.

2024 RSC MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT BRACKET:

MONDAY FEB. 26
(7) Indiana Southeast 80, (10) Midway 70
(9) Indiana East 78, (8) Rio Grande 76

WEDNESDAY FEB. 28
No. 1 Point Park (Pa.) def. No. 9 IU East, 86-85  
No. 4 WVU Tech def. No. 5 IU Kokomo, 83-66
No. 3 Shawnee State (Ohio) def. No. 6 Ohio Christian, 89-76
No. 2 St. Mary-of-the-Woods (Ind.) def. No. 7 IU Southeast, 87-60

SATURDAY MARCH 2 - hosted by highest remaining seeds in each matchup after Wednesday
No. 4 WVU Tech at No. 1 Point Park (Pa.), 3 p.m.
No. 3 Shawnee State (Ohio) at No. 2 St. Mary-of-the-Woods (Ind.), 4 p.m.

TUESDAY MARCH 5 - hosted by highest remaining seed after Saturday matchups
Semifinal winners, TBA

SMWC MEN'S BASKETBALL NOTES:
* SMWC is enjoying its best season as an NAIA member in its third year as a men's basketball program.  SMWC stands 24-5 this year and finished the regular season 17-1 in RSC play under first-year head coach Jesse McClung.  The previous two seasons of River States Conference basketball ended at 10-17 (5-13 RSC) in 2022-23 and 3-26 (0-18 in RSC)  in 2021-22.  Saint Mary-of-the-Woods was originally picked to finish last in the RSC preseason coaches poll.
* SMWC enters today's game on a 10-game winning streak.  The Pomeroys are 18-1 in their last 19 games.
* Cobie Barnes has set the SMWC career school record with 655 points this season.  The 4-time RSC Player of the Week ranks No. 7 nationally in the NAIA in scoring at 23.4 points per game.
* Barnes has reached double figures scoring in all 29 games this season, with a career-high 35 points.  Barnes has surpassed 20 points in a game 21 times this season, including four games with more than 30 points.
* Shon Tupuola has set a career school record with 344 rebounds this season (12.3 rebounds per game) to rank No. 4 nationally in the NAIA.  Tupuola also leads SMWC with a 69.3% field goal percentage and has a career school record 59 blocked shots.  Tupupla also has 11 double-doubles this season.
* Chaz Birchfield (11.6 ppg) and Greg Jenkins (11.0 ppg) are also double-figure scorers for the Pomeroys.  
* Jenkins leads the Pomeroys in assists (111) and also ranks in the NAIA national top 30 in steals (57).
* Greg Johnson completes the usual starting five and contributes 7.8 points per game with 57 assists and 27 steals.  Johnson also shoots 89.6% on the free throw line this season.
* Tarik Dixon ranks No 2 on the team with 49 three-point field goals and averages 8.2 points per game as the team's sixth man.  Dixon also shoots 87.0% from the free throw line this season. 
* DaMeriz Merriweather adds 7.7 points and 3.6 rebounds per game and has contributed 43 assists and 31 steals.
* Current career statistical leaders for SMWC include:
            Points - Cobie Barnes (650 school record); Tarik Dixon 548
            Rebounds - Shon Tupuola (342 school record); Cobie Barnes 198
            Assists - Greg Jenkins 111 (#2 in school history); Tarik Dixon 79
            Blocks - Shon Tupuola 59 (school record); Dakota Sampson 40
            Steals - Greg Jenkins 57 (school record)

SHAWNEE STATE MEN'S BASKETBALL NOTES:
* Shawnee State (20-8, advanced to the RSC Tournament Semifinals with an 89-76 win over Ohio Christian on Wednesday night. They were 13-4 in RSC play capturing the No. 3 seed in the tournament.
* Keith Germain leads the way for the Bears with a 15.6 ppg average.
* Former SMWC head coach Mike Hunter is in his first season at helm of Shawnee State.