ORANGE CITY, Iowa -- The Saint Mary-of-the-Woods men's basketball team is the No. 12 seed in the Nasmith Quadrant of the 2024 NAIA National Tournament and will travel to No. 5 seeded Northwestern (Iowa) on Friday, March 15 at 6:30 pm (ET) in Orange City, Iowa. The Woods are coming off a narrow 76-75 defeat at the hands of Point Park in the River States Conference Championship Game last Tuesday.

Saint Mary-of-the-Woods is 25-6 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 Pomeroys have won 11 of their last 12 contests heading into this weekend's national tournament.
 
SMWC had a shot to win the RSC Tournament Championship Game but a buzzer beating lay-up fell off the front of the rim to secure the runner up spot. Cobie Barnes finished the game with 19 points and four rebounds while Greg Jenkins also added 19 points to go with seven rebounds. Barnes was named the RSC Player & Newcomer of the Year as well an All-RSC First Team member.

Saint Mary-of-the-Woods hosted a River States Conference men's basketball tournament game for the first time in program history on February 28 with a win over IU-Southeast. The under head coach Jesse McClung after being picked to finish last in the RSC in the preseason league coaches poll finished second and McClung was named the RSC Coach of the Year for his efforts. 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 - 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. Saint Mary-of-the-Woods by virtue of its semifinal win over Shawnee State and berth into Tuesday's championship game will also represent the RSC in the NAIA National Tournament. This marks the first-ever appearance for the program in the tournament and The Woods first time sending a men's team to NAIA Nationals as well.

The winner of Friday night's game against Northwestern (Iowa) will play again on Saturday, March 16 against the victor between Keiser (Fla.) and Oregon Tech which will be played immediately following the SMWC game in Orange City.

Friday, March 15, 2024

• Game 1: (5) Northwestern vs. (12) Saint Mary-of-the-Woods (Ind.) // 5:30 PM CT // WATCH // LIVE STATS
• Game 2: (4) Oregon Tech vs. (13) Keiser (Fla.) // 7:30 PM CT // WATCH // LIVE STATS

Saturday, March 16, 2024

• Winner of Game 1 vs. Winner of Game 2 // 6:00 PM CT // WATCH // LIVE STATS

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 25-6 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 tonight's game having won 20 of their last 21 games.
* Cobie Barnes has set the SMWC career school record with 688 points this season. The 4-time RSC Player of the Week as well as Player & Newcomer of the Year ranks No. 10 nationally in the NAIA in scoring at 22.9 points per game.
* Barnes has reached double figures scoring in all 31 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 366 rebounds this season (12.2 rebounds per game) to rank No. 3 nationally in the NAIA.  Tupuola also leads SMWC with a 68.2% field goal percentage and has a career school record 66 blocked shots.  Tupupla also has 11 double-doubles this season.
* Chaz Birchfield (11.7 ppg) and Greg Jenkins (11.2 ppg) are also double-figure scorers for the Pomeroys.  
* Jenkins leads the Pomeroys in assists (117) and also ranks in the NAIA national top 30 in steals (62).
* Greg Johnson completes the usual starting five and contributes 7.8 points per game with 59 assists and 34 steals.  Johnson also shoots 89.6% on the free throw line this season.
* Tarik Dixon ranks No 2 on the team with 52 three-point field goals and averages 8.4 points per game as the team's sixth man.  Dixon also shoots 85.2% from the free throw line this season. 
* DaMeriz Merriweather adds 7.5 points and 3.7 rebounds per game and has contributed 43 assists and 32 steals.
* Current career statistical leaders for SMWC include:
            Points - Cobie Barnes (688 school record); Tarik Dixon 581
            Rebounds - Shon Tupuola (366 school record); Cobie Barnes 212
            Assists - Greg Jenkins 117 (#2 in school history); Tarik Dixon 80
            Blocks - Shon Tupuola 66 (school record); Dakota Sampson 40
            Steals - Greg Jenkins 62 (school record)

NORTHWESTERN (Iowa) MEN'S BASKETBALL NOTES:
* Northwestern (Iowa) enters Friday night's NAIA National Tournament contest as the No. 5 seed in the Naismith Quadrant with an overall record of 23-7 and earned a host bid after winning a share of the Great Plains Athletics Conference regular season title.
* Alex Van Kaisbeek led the Raiders this season with a 20.3 ppg average including a 60.1 field goal percentage.
* The Raiders are 13-1 this season on their homecourt with their lone loss coming against Morningside in the GPAC Tournament by the score of 93-83 on March 2.