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Championship Saturday at the Edgedome
Madison, Wis. (Feb. 22, 2005) – Both the Edgewood College men’s and
women’s basketball teams will host their respective Lake
Michigan Conference Tournament championships this Saturday,
Feb. 26 at the Todd Wehr Edgedome. The men take on Concordia
University at 2 p.m., while the women will tip-off against
Lakeland College at 7 p.m. The winner of both games will
receive the LMC’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Men's Preview
The Eagles (16-9), who are the top seed in the LMC
tourney, defeated No. 4 Lakeland College (14-12) by a final
score of 85-81 in the semifinals. Meanwhile, second-seeded
Concordia (13-14) knocked off No. 3 Wisconsin Lutheran
College (12-15) 92-90 in overtime to advance to the
championship game.
Saturday will mark the third time these two teams have
met in the tournament championship. The last time Edgewood
saw the Falcons in the final was back in 2002, when nearly
1,000 fans packed the Edgedome to watch the Eagles earn
their first-ever NCAA tournament berth with a thrilling
69-63 victory.
The Falcons, who are without leading scorer Ryan Wietor
(19.9 ppg) who suffered a broken hand a few weeks ago, were
the last team to beat Edgewood on its home court with a
74-61 win over the Eagles on Feb. 9. Edgewood prevailed
73-72 over the Falcons earlier this season in Mequon.
Edgewood is led by a trio of players averaging double
digits in scoring. Seth Cooper is second in the LMC in
scoring at 19.2 points per game followed by freshman Charlie
Averkamp (15.2 ppg) and Greg Blaska (13.4 ppg). The Eagles
are 10-4 at the Edgedome this season, but just 4-2 against
conference opponents after finishing the regular season 9-3
in the LMC.
Women's Preview
A rematch of last year’s LMC title game, this season
Edgewood (20-7) rose above the perennial power Lakeland
College (18-9) and garnered the No. 1 seed in the conference
tournament. The Eagles pulled out a 63-56 come-from-behind
victory over No. 5 Maranatha Baptist (14-9) in the LMC
semifinals last weekend, while the second-seeded Muskies
enter Saturday’s championship game after eliminating No. 3
Marian College (14-13) in Sheboygan, 59-44.
The Eagles will be looking for their first-ever trip to
the “Big Dance,” but they will first have to defeat the
Muskies for the third time this season. Lakeland, which has
earned the LMC’s automatic bid to the NCAA tourney four
times in the last five years, would have to snap Edgewood’s
11-game winning streak in order to advance to the national
stage.
Earlier this season it was Edgewood that snapped the
Muskies’ 19-game LMC regular season win streak with a 60-54
victory at Lakeland back on Dec. 11. The Eagles then
defeated Lakeland 47-35 in Madison on Feb. 1. Edgewood is
11-1 on its home court this season with its lone loss coming
to nationally ranked UW-Oshkosh in the home opener. In
addition to winning 11 straight at home, the Eagles have
also won 14 of their last 15 games.
In the post, Renee Steinert leads the Muskies with 14.8
points and 8.6 rebounds per game, and on the perimeter Sara
Langenhorst averages 13.1 points per outing while shooting
40 percent from three-point range. For the Eagles, forward
Nickie Updike averages 13.6 points and 8.5 rebounds per game
and guard Jordane Kittoe averages 13.4 points and 7.0
rebounds.
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About Edgewood College
Edgewood College is Madison’s only independent liberal arts
college, a Catholic school with 2,400 undergraduate and graduate
students. It offers more than 40 academic and professional programs,
including master’s degrees in business, education, nursing, and
other fields, and a doctoral program in education leadership. For
more information about Edgewood College, visit
www.edgewood.edu or
call 800-444-4861.
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Madison, Wisconsin 53711