Complete NCAA Division lll Bracket (.pdf)
BEREA, Ohio – The Baldwin Wallace University men's basketball team is one of 64 participants in the 2019 NCAA Division lll National Tournament.
BW (20-8) qualified for the national tournament by winning the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament and receiving its automatic bid. The Yellow Jackets are making their first trip back to the national tournament since 2006 and their eighth overall appearance. BW has advanced as far as the "Sweet 16" during the 1995 national tournament.
BW will travel to Oswego County, New York, and compete in the Oswego Regional on Friday, March 1 and Saturday, March 2. The Yellow Jackets will face Salisbury (Md.) University on Friday. The other two teams in the regional are host Oswego State and Salem State (Mass.) University. Game times will be announced at later time.
BW won the OAC Tournament as the fifth-seed and won three games on the road. The Yellow Jackets defeated fourth-seed Wilmington College in the quarterfinals, then upset top-seed Capital University in the semifinals, and took down second-seed the University of Mount Union to win the title.
Two other OAC schools made the cut as Capital University and Marietta College both made at-large bids.
This season, BW is led by senior two-time All-OAC and Academic All-OAC guard Jay Battle (Gahanna/Lincoln), who was named the Most Valuable Player of the OAC Tournament, as he averages a career-high 18.3 points-per-game. Battle ranks 12th on the school's all-time scoring list with 1,513 career points. In addition, junior Academic All-OAC guard Michael Quiring (Brunswick) is the other Yellow Jacket double figure scorer as he averages a career-best 10.4 ppg. Junior forward Drew Sova (Chagrin Falls/Kenston) leads the team in rebounding and is fourth in the OAC with a career-high 7.8 rebounds-per-game.
BW Head Coach Tom Heil, who is in his fourth season at the helm in Berea, has a mark of 69-41 as the Yellow Jacket head coach and a career record of 91-48. Heil is coaching his second team in the national tournament as he took Defiance College to the tournament in 2015. He is 1-1 in the national tournament and upset the defending national champion University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in the first round.
