The newly crowned North Atlantic Conference champion Husson University men’s basketball team from Bangor will travel to Worcester, Massachusetts, to take on Worcester Polytechnic Institute in the NCAA Division III basketball tournament at 5:30 p.m. Friday.
Husson is 21-7 and is playing in its second straight NCAA tourney, and third in four years, while 14th-ranked WPI comes into the tourney at 24-3.
Husson has a nine-game winning streak while WPI has won 16 of its last 17.
Husson and WPI will be meeting for the seventh time with Husson still looking for its first win over the Engineers.
Husson and WPI had three common opponents this season.
Each team beat UMass Dartmouth, WPI by six (80-74) and Husson by three (73-70); WPI won two of three games against Clark, 58-49 and 67-64, to go with an 80-65 NEWMAC championship game loss while Husson lost to Clark 72-61 and WPI beat St. Joseph’s 80-73 while Husson lost to the Monks 109-76.
The winner of the Husson-WPI game will play the winner of Stockton and Ithaca in a second round game at 5:30 p.m. Saturday. Stockton (19-8) and Ithaca (18-9) will play the first game of the first-round pod in Worcester at 3 p.m. Friday.
St. Joseph’s is the only other men’s team from Maine in the 64-team field. The 22-4 Monks will travel to Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, and take on Redlands (22-4) at 4:05 p.m. Friday. Host Tufts (21-5) will play Yeshiva (18-10) in the 1:15 p.m. opener.
The time of the championship game will depend on the outcome of Friday’s games.
On the women’s side, the undefeated Bowdoin College women will host a four-team pod in Brunswick. Rival Bates will travel to Scranton, Pennsylvania, for its first round matchup.
Bowdoin, 27-0, will face 17-11 Brooklyn at 7:30 p.m. Friday after Cortland (24-3) and Endicott (22-5) square off in the 5 p.m. opener. Saturday’s second round game is at 7:30 p.m.
Bates, 16-9, will meet Southern Virginia (26-2) at 4:15 p.m. Friday with Scranton (26-1) facing Mt. St. Mary (17-10) at 6:45 p.m. The second round game in that pod will be at 6:45 p.m. Saturday.
