Two Basketball Titles on the Line in PSUAC Championships on Monday

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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The 2023 PSUAC Men's and Women's Basketball Championships will take place on Monday, March 6th in the Bryce Jordan Center on the University Park campus of Penn State University. Four teams will vie for two trophies, as Penn State Wilkes-Barre clashes with Penn State Greater Allegheny for the men's crown while Penn State Lehigh Valley and Penn State Schuylkill battle it out for the women's title.

Each game will be live streamed on the PSU Campus Athletics Network at the "Watch Live" link above. Live stats are also available on the PSUAC website by going to the respective sports Schedule/Results page and clicking the "Live Stats" link next to the game.

The winners will each earn an automatic bid to the USCAA Basketball National Championship tournament scheduled for March 12-16 in Richmond, Va. Check out our previews of each game below.

PSUAC Men's Basketball Championship

East #3 Penn State Wilkes-Barre (22-7, 15-4 PSUAC) vs. West #2 Penn State Greater Allegheny (15-17, 12-7 PSUAC)

1:00 p.m.

We'll open the day with what was an unexpected match-up at the beginning of the PSUAC Tournament. Wilkes-Barre, having earned the three-seed in the East, had to first get through East two-seed Schuylkill in the quarterfinals. After dispatching their rivals, they moved on to face the West's number one seed and perennial contender, Penn State Mont Alto. A defensive battle ensued and Wilkes-Barre came out on top, 51-48, to score their second upset of the tournament.

Greater Allegheny took a slightly different route, first holding serve against a solid Penn State New Kensington team in the quarterfinals before upsetting East one-seed Penn State Brandywine in an overtime thriller, 97-94. 

Each team is led by multiple PSUAC All-Conference selections, as Wilkes-Barre will look to East First Team honoree Anthony Picott to lead the way. He's joined by two Second Team selections in Jaymes Jackson and Jalen Willis. Teammate Allen Ozojie shores up the defensive end, having been named the East Division Defensive Player of the Year. Wilkes-Barre will try to win their first ever PSUAC Men's Basketball Championship. However, the campus did capture the USCAA National Championship in 2019 after a runner-up finish in the PSUAC tournament.

They'll face off with the West Rookie of the Year and Second Team selection Devin Green and teammate Bryce Phillips, a West First Teamer. Jeremiah Miller rounds out the three-headed attack as Greater Allegheny looks for their first men's basketball title since 2017.

In their only match-up of the year, Wilkes-Barre was victorious on the road, taking home a 98-83 victory.

PSUAC Women's Basketball Championship

East #2 Penn State Lehigh Valley (23-4, 17-2 PSUAC) vs. East #1 Penn State Schuylkill (24-8, 17-2 PSUAC)

3:45 p.m.

Familiar foes square off in the PSUAC Women's Championship game as division rivals Penn State Schuylkill and Penn State Lehigh Valley meet for the third time this season. Schuylkill gave Lehigh Valley their only two conference losses of the season, sweeping the regular season games 68-48 and 69-64 in OT. 

But their paths to get to the championship were mirror images, just in different rounds of the tournament. Schuylkill squeaked past East four-seed Brandywine, 64-63, to advance to the semifinals where they easily handled West two-seed Greater Allegheny to advance to their second straight PSUAC Championship game. Lehigh Valley took the opposite approach, handling East three-seed Penn State Hazleton in the quarterfinals before using a last-second shot to triumph over West one-seed Penn State Beaver, 44-43. 

Schuylkill, after their runner-up finish in 2022, looks to capture the school's first women's basketball title while Lehigh Valley hopes to repeat their magic from the 2019 season and end up on top of the mountain. 

Schuylkill's physical style has come out on top of Lehigh Valley's pressure and uptempo rhythm both times this year, in large part due to East Division Player of the Year Tajae Stevenson. Stevenson was also named the Co-Defensive Player of the Year. She and her teammates will match-up against Lehigh Valley's All-Conference selections: Chanelle Lee (East First Team), Samantha Columna (Second Team), and Jah'nel Oliver (Second Team), as well as Stevenson's Co-Defensive Player of the Year Naila Newman, whose sister Nia Newman was named East Rookie of the Year.