SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Regular-season Southern Conference champion Chattanooga is the No. 1 seed in the Ingles Southern Conference Men’s Basketball Championship, which takes place March 4-7 at Harrah’s Cherokee Center – Asheville in Asheville, North Carolina.
 
The tournament begins Friday, March 4, with a pair of first-round games. Four quarterfinal games follow on Saturday, with the semifinals on Sunday and the title game on Monday at 7 p.m. The semifinals will air on ESPNU, while the championship game will air live on ESPN. The other six games will air on ESPN+, with Saturday’s quarterfinals also appearing on select Nexstar affiliates.
 
Chattanooga locked up the regular-season title and No. 1 seed on Feb. 23 with its win over ETSU, then punctuated its championship by stopping Samford’s six-game winning streak in its season finale on Saturday. The Mocs, who have fashioned a 24-7 overall record and went 14-4 in league play, will face either No. 8 seed ETSU or No. 9 seed The Citadel in the quarterfinals of the tournament on Saturday at noon. UTC, whose Malachi Smith leads the SoCon in scoring at 20.3 points per game, swept the season series from both opponents. Chattanooga has faced ETSU in the SoCon tournament more than any other opponent, with the Bucs holding the slim 9-8 series advantage. Despite both competing in the tournament every year since 1978, UTC and The Citadel have met just once, with the Mocs claiming a first-round win in 1986. Chattanooga earned the top seed for the first time since 2016, the last season the Mocs won the tournament title.
 
ETSU downed UNCG on Sunday to move to 15-16 overall and 7-11 in league play, while The Citadel enters postseason play with a 12-17 mark and went 6-12 in SoCon games. The squads split a pair of regular-season meetings this year, with the Bulldogs winning 75-73 in Johnson City, Tennessee, on Jan. 22 and the Bucs returning the favor in Charleston, South Carolina, on Feb. 19, winning 77-67. ETSU is 7-0 against The Citadel in the SoCon tournament, but the sides have not met since the Bucs’ 85-71 win in the 2000 first round. ETSU and The Citadel will get the men’s tournament started with a 5 p.m. tip on Friday.
 
Friday’s second contest will see No. 7 seed Mercer (15-16, 8-10) take on No. 10 seed Western Carolina (11-20, 5-13), which finished its regular season on a high note with its 82-73 win over VMI on Saturday. Mercer and Western Carolina split in the regular season, as the Bears earned a 72-64 home win on Jan. 22 and the Catamounts defended their turf with a 69-65 win on Feb. 19. The squads have met in the SoCon tournament just once, with WCU claiming a 70-56 win in the 2020 quarterfinals.
 
The winner of that contest will advance to face No. 2 seed Furman (20-11, 12-6) on Saturday, March 5, at 6 p.m. The Paladins, seeking their first SoCon tournament title since 1980, swept both Mercer and Western Carolina during the regular season. Furman is 2-0 in the tournament against Mercer, winning in the semifinals in 2015 and the quarterfinals in 2019, and are 4-0 against the Catamounts, last facing them in the quarters in 2018.
 
Saturday’s second game pits No. 4 seed Wofford (18-12, 10-8) against No. 5 seed VMI (16-14, 9-9) at 2:30 p.m. The squads just met on Wednesday, with the Terriers taking an 83-72 win with VMI big man Jake Stephens out of the lineup with injury. The Keydets took the season’s first meeting 80-73 on Dec. 29 in the league opener for both squads. They’ll be meeting in the tournament for just the third time, with Wofford having won a first-round matchup in 2000 and a quarterfinal contest in 2019 en route to the title.
 
No. 3 seed Samford (20-10, 10-8), which had won nine of 10 before falling at Chattanooga on Saturday, will face No. 6 seed and defending tournament UNCG (17-13, 9-9) on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. The teams split a pair of regular-season meetings, each winning at home. UNCG topped Samford 61-58 on Jan. 22 before the Bulldogs evened the season series with a 55-49 win on Feb. 19. The Spartans are 2-0 against the Bulldogs in the SoCon tournament, winning in the first round in 2015 and in the 2019 quarterfinals.
 
2022 Ingles Southern Conference Men’s Basketball Championship
Friday, March 4 (ESPN+)
Game 1 - (8) ETSU vs. (9) The Citadel, 5 p.m.
Game 2 - (7) Mercer vs. (10) Western Carolina, 7:30 p.m.
 
Saturday, March 5 (ESPN+/Nexstar)
Game 3 - (1) Chattanooga vs. Game 1 winner, 12 p.m.
Game 4 - (4) Wofford vs. (5) VMI, 2:30 p.m.
Game 5 - (2) Furman vs. Game 2 winner, 6 p.m.
Game 6 - (3) Samford vs. (6) UNCG, 8:30 p.m.
 
Sunday, March 6 (ESPNU)
Game 7 - Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner, 4 p.m.
Game 8 - Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 winner, 6:30 p.m.
 
Monday, March 7 (ESPN)
Championship game, 7 p.m.