From Rochester, New York, welcome to the JP Morgan Chase Scholarship Basketball Tournament.

Each winter for 42 years the colleges from this area have gathered for a men’s basketball tournament. In 1992-1993 the women’s teams joined the fun. And while the name has changed with the times and bank mergers, it’s still a great event and a good opportunity to put eyes on a slew of East region teams at once.

On the women’s side, St. John Fisher plays NAIA Division II Roberts Wesleyan in the third place game (1 pm), which we’ll broadcast live. Obviously the game has no impact on the Cardinals’ Division III season, but it does matter to Coach Phil Kahler’s quest for 800 wins. He entered the season with 784 wins and the Cardinals won 13 last year, needing a three-win improvement to get him the milestone.

The championship (5:30 pm) features No. 22 Rochester, the top seed in the tournament, and cinderella-story Nazareth, the seventh seed. Tough to see the Golden Flyers (5-7) hanging with the Yellow Jackets, but they weren’t supposed to win the first two games either. JC DeLass and WYSL do a fantastic job so we’ll just link to their broadcast below.

The men’s games should be particularly interesting given the depth of this year’s field. The third place game features two teams who are likely to see a lot of each other, Geneseo State and Brockport State. In fact, they’ll see each other again on Tuesday night to re-open conference play.

The Knights picked up their first loss last night after Nazareth rallied from a double-digit second half deficit. The Golden Eagles have played better this week after dropping three straight to start the New Year. They pushed No. 1 Rochester to the limit last night. But it’s tough to have a moral victory and lose five of six so Brockport needs the win here today against Geneseo State (3 pm). We’ll broadcast that one.

The men’s title game (8 pm) is a rematch from earlier this year, won by Rochester 68-51. The Unpronouncables (Onyiriuka and Ndubizu) combined for 42 points and 21 rebounds in that one. Nazareth is playing without injured Ryan McAdam but has already had a nice showing in the tournament. WYSL will carry that broadcast.

Webcasts

1 pm : Roberts Wesleyan 79 St. John Fisher 67 F
3 pm: Brockport State 83 Geneseo State 59 F
5:30 pm: Rochester 83 Nazareth 46 F
8:00 pm: Rochester 87 Nazareth 75 F

In addition to the broadcasts, we’ll keep the blog updated throughout the day and post coaches interviews later. So check back in between all the other big games, the NFL playoffs and whatever else your Saturday entails.

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