City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Five area teams punched their ticket NCAA Division III men’s basketball tournament with conference tournament wins over the weekend--now Gwynedd-Mercy, Franklin & Marshall, Lancaster Bible, Stockton and Delaware Valley know who and where they’ll be playing, and they're joined by one program who had to sweat it out to see if its name would be announced.

Here are the six:

• The only at-large selection of the group was Susquehanna, in the tournament for the first time since 1994 despite losing to Scranton in the Landmark Conference championship. The Crusaders (23-4, 13-3 Landmark) take on 19-8 Old Westbury (N.Y.) in the first round, with Babson or Hartwick awaiting the winner.
• The Colonials States Athletic Conference (CSAC) champions, Gwynedd-Mercy gets a tough draw in Marietta (25-3). The Griffins recovered from a 1-3 start to the year to finish 21-6 (17-1 CSAC), taking down the No. 2 seed Neumann Knights in the league championship 84-70 to qualify for the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2009. The Pioneers were on a 17-game winning streak that was snapped in the conference finals, where they lost to John Carroll.
• Franklin & Marshall is coming off a Centennial Championship win over Swarthmore, capping off a 22-5 regular season, including a 15-3 mark in Centennial play. They Diplomats face Skidmore (18-8) in their 24th NCAA Tournament appearance.
• One of two undefeated teams in the bracket along with Benedictine (Ill.), Lancaster Bible rolls into the NCAA Tournament with a 27-0 record. They were the last team to be announced, taking on Wooster (21-7), the NCAC runner-up. The Fighting Scots have won an NCAA first-round game in seven consecutive seasons.
• Stockton (21-6, 14-4), making its third straight NCAA Tournament appearance after an NJAC three-peat, gets Keene State in the first round. The Ospreys get to host the Owls (18-10, 8-6), who got in after winning the Little East Tournament with an 86-81 win over Mass-Dartmouth.
• Delaware Valley gets Oswego State (20-8), as the MAC Freedom champions play the SUNYAC runners-up in Marrietta, Ohio; winner plays either Marietta or Gwynedd Mercy in the second round. The Aggies (20-7, 9-5) lost four of six games to close the regular season but bounced back to down Misericordia and then Wilkes in the league playoffs to earn its third bid in six years.

For the full bracket, click here.