MAC Men’s Basketball

The first round of the MAC men’s basketball tournament concluded on Monday. Eighth seed Buffalo overcame nineth seed Central Michigan in a 74-72 overtime win. Buffalo moves on to the second round of the tournament to face fifth seed Ball State.

Also on Monday evening, seventh seed Western Michigan defeated 10th seed Northern Illinois, and 11th seed Miami upset sixth seed Bowling Green. Western Michigan and Northern Illinois will face each other in the second round of
the tournament.

An interesting event occurred this year; where five teams were given byes in the first round. Normally the first and second teams are given automatic bids into the semifinals while the third and fourth seed teams are given automatic bids into the quarterfinals.

A fifth seeded team this year was granted an automatic bid into the second round due to the ineligibility of the Toledo Rockets to compete in the tournament. Toledo was denied a chance to compete this year due to poor academic grades. First seed Akron plays its first game of the tournament on Friday at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.

MAC Women’s Basketball

Four teams survived the first round of the MAC tournament to advance to the second round. Bowling Green moved on to face Western Michigan. Buffalo moved on to face Miami.

Western Michigan fell to Bowling Green 55-53 and Buffalo defeated Miami 82-70. The Western Michigan Broncos will advance to the third round of the tournament to face fourth seed Ball State, and Buffalo will advance to face third seed Akron.