Wallace State Men’s and Women’s Basketball teams receive byes in ACCC Tournament

HANCEVILLE,

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Ala. — Wallace State Community College’s men’s and women’s basketball teams each received byes for the Alabama Community College Conference (ACCC) Division I Basketball Tournaments. The Lions are seeded No. 1 and the Lady Lions are seeded No. 2 their respective tournaments, which will be held Thursday-Saturday, March 6-8 at Spragins Hall on the campus of the University of Alabama-Huntsville.

The Lady Lions will play their first game in the tournament on Friday, March 7 at 12 p.m., versus the winner of Thursday’s first-round game between No. 6 seed Coastal Alabama-South and No. 3 seed Calhoun Community College. The Lady Lions are 26-4 overall and 11-3 in the conference.

The reigning ACCC champions from 2024, the Lions will play their first game at 6 p.m. on Friday, March 7 against the winner of Thursday’s match-up between No. 5 seed Lawson State and Nov. 4 seed Gadsden State. The Lions are 24-5 overall and 11-3 in the conference.

“It’s nice to have won the regular season conference championship, which is hard to do. It took a lot of discipline, consistency, and responding the right way to adversity over a two-month period of time,” said Head Coach Faron Key, who is in his first year leading the men’s basketball team. “But now our total focus is on this week and the opportunity to compete for an ACCC conference tournament championship. We’ve spent the last six months trying to develop championship habits and principles. Now we just need to fall back on that training, turn it loose, and play with great energy, effort, enthusiasm and execute for 40 minutes.”

The winner of the ACCC men’s championship will go on to play in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division I Men’s Basketball Championship March 22-29 in Hutchinson, Kan. The winner of the ACCC women’s championship would play in the NJCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship March 25-April 1 in Casper, Wyo.

First- and second-round games on Thursday and Friday will be streamed live by JockJive at www.jockjive.com/acccsports. The finals on Saturday, March 8, will be aired on Alabama Public Television, with the women’s game starting at 1 p.m. and the men’s game to follow about 45 minutes after the conclusion of the women’s game.