The Husson University men’s basketball team from Bangor will be seeking its fifth North Atlantic Conference championship in eight years and the Maine Maritime women’s basketball team will be looking to defend its conference title when the NAC East Tournament champs take on NAC West titlists SUNY Cobleskill on Saturday.
The Husson men, 22-5 overall, will travel to Cobleskill, N.Y. for a 1 p.m. tipoff against the 17-10 Fighting Tigers at Iorio Gymnasium, while the 22-4 MMA women will host 25-1 SUNY Cobleskill at 2 p.m. in the Margaret Chase Smith Gymnasium in Castine.
The winners will earn automatic berths in the NCAA Division III Tournament.
Warren Caruso’s Husson men won NAC titles in 2015-16, ‘16-17, ‘18-19 and 2020-21 while the MMA women captured their first NAC title since 2004-05 last season.
The Husson men and MMA women each had to go to overtime to capture their East Division titles as Husson edged UMaine-Farmington 74-68 and the MMA women triumphed over Husson 67-61.
The SUNY Cobleskill men also had to grind out a championship game win, nipping SUNY Delhi 84-82.
But their women’s counterparts cruised in their tournament, beating SUNY Morrisville 68-43 before routing SUNY Canton 76-33.
SUNY Cobleskill’s women have won all 12 of their road games.
SUNY Cobleskill is in its third season in the NAC.
The Husson men have been led by All-NAC first teamers Riles Neff and Jeremy Moronta.
Neff, a 6-foot-2 junior guard from Camarilo, California and a Menlo College (Cal.) transfer, is averaging 17.4 points per game along with 5.7 rebounds and 4.8 assists.
Moronta, a 6-1 senior guard from Brooklyn, N.Y., is averaging 14.4 points and a team-high nine rebounds to go with 4.8 assists and two steals.
Freshman guard Andre McCauley has complemented them by averaging 10.5 ppg.
The Fighting Tigers feature NAC Rookie of the Year Kobe Long. The 6-2 sophomore has averaged 22 ppg and 4.2 rpg and had 36 points in the West championship game win over SUNY Delhi.
Five-foot-10 guard Andre Starks has produced 14.5 points, 5.2 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.9 steals per game and forward Markel Jenkins has supplied the Fighting Tigers with 10.2 points and a team-high 8.8 rebounds per outing.
The Mariner women have been sparked by a pair of junior All-NAC guards in Erianna Moore and Maria Barela.
The 6-foot Moore was an All-NAC first teamer and she will enter the contest averaging 12.8 points, seven rebounds and 4.1 assists per game.
The 5-6 Barela was a second team selection and has averaged 10.7 points, six rebounds and 3.5 assists per game.
Sophomore guard Evelyn Dagan, daughter of head coach Craig Dagan, has averaged 10.2 points per game.
The Mariners are 11-2 in the Smith Gymnasium.
For the second straight game, the Mariners will be dealing with one of the best bigs in the conference.
Six-foot-two senior center Logan Thayne was the NAC Player of the Year. She will come into the final averaging 16.3 points, 10.6 rebounds and 2.2 blocked shots per outing. She had 23 points and 19 rebounds in the Fighting Tigers’ two playoff wins.
MMA faced the NAC Defender of the Year in the East Division final in Husson’s 6-3 Bailey Donovan and she capped her superb career with 24 points and 25 rebounds in the loss.
Junior guard-forward Cara Walker has provided the Fighting Tigers with 13.3 points, 8.8 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game and junior guard Antonia May has been good for 10.6 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game.
Walker and May each had a total of 29 points in the playoff wins.