Woods hosts conference semifinal Saturday against former SMWC coach

Mar. 1—A bit of the past meets the present Saturday for the Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College men's basketball program.

The red-hot Pomeroys — winners of their last 10 games — are the No. 2 seed for the River States Conference (RSC) tournament and will host No. 3 seeded Shawnee State in a semifinal home game at 4 p.m. Saturday inside Hamilton Arena. The Woods is coming off an 87-60 victory over IU-Southeast on Wednesday night in which six different Pomeroys reached double-figure scoring, including Cobie Barnes who totaled 15 points, eight assists and six rebounds.

One extra twist — former SMWC coach Mike Hunter is in his first season at the helm of Shawnee State.

SMWC carries a 24-5 record into the game, along with a 17-1 conference mark, which placed the Pomeroys second in the RSC point system standings 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 have won 18 of their last 19 contests heading into Saturday's matchup.

SMWC topped Shawnee State by the score of 80-77 on Jan. 27 on the road. Barnes paced the Pomeroys in the matchup with 25 points, while Shon Tupuala grabbed 16 rebounds.

The Woods hosted a RSC men's basketball tournament game for the first time in program history Wednesday night with the win over IU-Southeast. The Pomeroys finished 23-5 overall in the regular season under 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 RSC 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.

Notes

—Barnes has set the SMWC career school record with 655 points this season. The four-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.

—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.

—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 (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 Germaine leads the way for the Bears with a 15.6 ppg average.

RSC MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

Monday

(7) Indiana Southeast 80, (10) Midway 70

(9) Indiana East 78, (8) Rio Grande 76

Wednesday

No. 1 Point Park (Pa.) 86, No. 9 IU East 85

No. 4 WVU Tech 83, No. 5 IU Kokomo 66

No. 3 Shawnee State (Ohio) 89, No. 6 Ohio Christian 76

No. 2 Saint Mary-of-the-Woods 87, No. 7 IU Southeast 60

Saturday

No. 4 WVU Tech at No. 1 Point Park (Pa.), 3 p.m.

No. 3 Shawnee State (Ohio) at No. 2 Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, 4 p.m.

Tuesday, March 5 — Hosted by highest remaining seed after Saturday matchups

Semifinal winners, TBA

Mark Bennett can be reached at 812-231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.