
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, February 28, 1994                   TAG: 9402280117
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Staff report
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MAROONS LEARN THEIR FATES

ROANOKE COLLEGE'S men are seeded No. 1 in their region, and the women will start the NCAA Tournament with a game at home.

The Roanoke College men's basketball team earned one of eight top seeds for the NCAA Division III tournament and will play at home Saturday.

Pairings for the 40-team men's and women's tournaments were announced Sunday.

The Roanoke women's team (23-4) earned a surprise home game in the first round. The Maroons (23-4) will face North Carolina Wesleyan (19-7) on Wednesday in a South Region game.

The Roanoke-North Carolina Wesleyan winner will play Maryville, Tenn.

The men were seeded first in the South Region and received a bye for the first round. The Maroons will play host to the winner of Thursday's game between Oglethorpe (Ga.) and Hampden-Sydney on Saturday.

The Tigers (20-5) slipped in after being eliminated by Guilford on Thursday in a quarterfinal of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference Tournament. The Maroons beat Hampden-Sydney twice during the regular season.

"They went by the seeds," said Page Moir, Roanoke's coach. "In other years, they've mixed it up so conference members don't play each other.

"I want to see ODAC teams do their best, but if it comes down to us and Hampden-Sydney, so be it. What I'm excited about is getting to play at home."

If the Maroons win Saturday, they will travel to play the winner of the West Region game matching St. Thomas (Minn.) and Central (Iowa).

The top seed in the West is Cal Lutheran, which also received a first-round bye. Cal Lutheran will play the winner of a first-round game between Cal-San Diego and Pomona-Pitzer (Calif.).

The other side of the South Region bracket pits Christopher Newport against Greensboro in a rematch of Friday's Dixie Conference championship. Greensboro beat the Captains 120-119 in overtime. The teams play Thursday at Christopher Newport.

Both Maroons teams earned automatic NCAA berths by winning the ODAC tournaments.

The Roanoke men (26-1) are ranked fourth in the nation.

by CNB