By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Men’s and women’s basketball teams at Northern Kentucky and Thomas More will be jockeying for favorable positions in conference tournament brackets during the final two weeks of the regular season.
Thomas More is a member of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference that limits its tournament fields to the top eight teams in the final standings. On Tuesday, the Saints were tied for fourth place in the men’s standings and tied for eighth place in the women’s standings.
Northern Kentucky teams compete in the Horizon League that includes all 11 members in its post-season playoffs with the top five getting byes that put them in quarterfinals. On Tuesday, the Norse women were tied for fifth place and the men were seventh.
This is Thomas More’s final season as a provisional member of the G-MAC. The Saints can play in the conference tournaments, but they are not eligible to compete in the NCAA Division II playoffs until next year.
That’s unfortunate for the TMU men’s team that’s 16-8 overall and 11-6 in the conference with three games remaining. The Saints have two seniors – Wyatt Vieth and Casey George – who are in their final year of eligibility. George has a team-high 14.6 scoring average.
The TMU women need a strong finish to land one of the eight berths in the G-MAC tournament in Brian Neal’s first season as head coach. The Saints’ current records are 10-15 overall and 7-10 in conference games after back-to-back wins. The last two games on their schedule are against teams currently ahead of them in the conference standings.
The leading scorers for the Saints are Simon Kenton graduate Sereniti Webb and Newport Central Catholic graduate Rylee Turner, who are averaging 11.8 and 9.2 points per game.
The NKU men and women both have four Horizon League games remaining. On Thursday, the women have a home game against Ft. Wayne, No. 2 in the league standings. On Friday, the men visit Wright State, No. 8 in the standings.
NKU guard Trey Robinson ranks among the Horizon League men’s top 10 in scoring average (15.3), rebounds per game (6.2) and field goal percentage (49.0).