PITTSBURGH -- The Saint Mary-of-the-Woods men's basketball team is the No. 2 seed for the River States Conference Tournament and will travel to No. 1 seeded Point Park in the River States Conference Championship Game on Tuesday, March 5 at 7 pm (ET) in Pittsburgh. The Woods are coming off a 74-64 victory over Shawnee State on Saturday afternoon which saw Chaz Birchfield score 17 points on the strength of a 7-of-11 shooting effort en route to victory.

Saint Mary-of-the-Woods is 25-5 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 point system is designed to provide balance to the unbalanced conference schedule caused by the presence of an East and West Division. The Pomeroys are riding an 11-game winning streak and have won 19 of their last 20 contests heading into Tuesday's matchup.
 
SMWC dropped their lone conference contest of the season on January 25 in a road game at Point Park. The final score was 77-70 despite a game-high 21 points from Cobie Barnes while Greg Jenkins added 19 and Birchfield tallied 16 points with 10 rebounds.

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 Pomeroys finished 23-5 overall in the regular season under head 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 River States Conference 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. 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 full bracket for the 2024 RSC Men's Basketball Tournament is below.

2024 RSC MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT BRACKET:

MONDAY FEB. 26
(7) Indiana Southeast 80, (10) Midway 70
(9) Indiana East 78, (8) Rio Grande 76

WEDNESDAY FEB. 28
No. 1 Point Park (Pa.) def. No. 9 IU East, 86-85  
No. 4 WVU Tech def. No. 5 IU Kokomo, 83-66
No. 3 Shawnee State (Ohio) def. No. 6 Ohio Christian, 89-76
No. 2 St. Mary-of-the-Woods (Ind.) def. No. 7 IU Southeast, 87-60

SATURDAY MARCH 2
No. 1 Point Park (Pa.) def. No. 4 WVU Tech, 87-63
No. 2 St. Mary-of-the-Woods (Ind.) def. No. 3 Shawnee State, 74-64

TUESDAY MARCH 5
No. 2 St. Mary-of-the-Woods (Ind.) at No. 1 Point Park (Pa.), 7:00 p.m.
**Point Park (Pa.) and St. Mary-of-the-Woods (Ind.) earn RSC's automatic bids to NAIA National Championship.
 
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 25-5 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 today's game on a 11-game winning streak.  The Pomeroys are 19-1 in their last 20 games.
* Cobie Barnes has set the SMWC career school record with 669 points this season.  The 4-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 30 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 355 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 61 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 (116) 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 58 assists and 27 steals.  Johnson also shoots 89.6% on the free throw line this season.
* Tarik Dixon ranks No 2 on the team with 51 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 (669 school record); Tarik Dixon 564
            Rebounds - Shon Tupuola (355 school record); Cobie Barnes 208
            Assists - Greg Jenkins 116 (#2 in school history); Tarik Dixon 80
            Blocks - Shon Tupuola 61 (school record); Dakota Sampson 40
            Steals - Greg Jenkins 62 (school record)

POINT PARK MEN'S BASKETBALL NOTES:
* Point Park (Pa.) University is the No. 1 overall seed as the RSC points leader and the RSC regular-season champion. With that, the Pioneers (28-2, 15-2 RSC) have earned automatic qualification to the NAIA National Championship. Point Park also won the RSC East Division.
* Jalen Stamps leads the way with 602 points for the Pioneers this season and has hit 97 3-pointers.
* The Pioneers have won nine games in a row this season and own an 18-1 record on their home court.