AZUSA, Calif. – It will be a busy Thursday, March 19, when Azusa Pacific opens play in both the men’s and women’s NAIA Basketball Championship Tournaments.

 

The NAIA national office has released the first-round pairings and the entire 32-team brackets for the respective men’s and women’s national championship tournaments which begin next Wednesday, March 18, the men’s tourney in Kansas City, Mo., and the women’s in Jackson, Tenn.

 

The Cougar women, who enter the NAIA Tournament with a 22-10 record, will take on longtime NAIA power Southern Nazarene University (24-7) out of Bethany, Okla., in the final game of the first round at 7:45 p.m. (PDT) in Oman Arena in Jackson.

 

The men, who won the Golden State Athletic Conference Postseason Tournament and are now 24-9 on the season, have drawn Mid-America Nazarene University (26-7), at 4:15 p.m. (PDT) Thursday in Kansas City’s famed Municipal Auditorium.

 

Should both Cougar teams win their first round games, they would play again on Friday, the men at 6 p.m. (PDT) and the women at 7:45 p.m. (PDT).

 

Click here to view the complete 32-team women’s NAIA Tournament bracket and here to see the men’s bracket.