NCAA Bracket

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INDIANPOLIS | The National Collegiate Athletic Association announced the 64-team field for its 2024 men's basketball championship Monday afternoon, and Farmingdale State College -- winners of the Skyline Conference for the second year in a row -- will travel to Hampden-Sydney, Va., to face Stevens Institute of Technology in first-round action on Friday at 4:30 p.m.

Top-ranked Hampden-Sydney College plays host to La Roche (Pa.) in the other first-round match-up at Kirby Field House on Friday night at 7, with the two winners facing off in second-round action Saturday at 7 p.m.

Tickets for Friday's session (note: limited tickets available, and tickets are good for both Friday contests) will be on sale at the door at Kirby Field House on Friday afternoon at 3. Additionally, tickets for Saturday night's second-round contest between the two advancing teams will go on sale immediately after Friday's Hampden-Sydney/La Roche contest at the Field House, as well as at the door on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. Tickets for each day are $15 for adults, and $10 for students and senior citizens. 

Head coach Brendan Twomey's Rams (26-2) ran through the Skyline Conference Championship last week for the second year in a row and fourth time in the last seven full seasons of play, defeating Yeshiva University in Sunday's championship final by an 87-68 score. Senior guard Corey Powell (Valley Stream, N.Y.) -- one of three 1,000 career points scorers on the FSC team -- was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tourney after scoring 19 points on 6-of-9 shooting to go with six rebounds and four assists against the Maccabees. Senior swingman Nick Hurowitz (Mt. Sinai, N.Y.) added 15 points and 14 boards, while freshman post Kentrell Evans (Brooklyn, N.Y.) chipped in with 15 points (7-of-9 FG), eight caroms and three blocked shots.

Head coach Bobby Hurley's Stevens side (22-5), which was receiving votes in the most-recent D3hoops.com Top 25 poll, enters championship play after winning its second MAC Freedom title in the last three seasons on Saturday, as the Ducks outlasted DeSales University, 54-53. Freshman Tommy Scholl was named the tournament's most valuable player after scoring a career-high 16 points off the bench, including a 4-for-4 effort from 3-point range. Stephen Braunstein averages 17.1 points per game for Stevens, and is 83-of-195 from beyond the arc, while Jack Spellman averages a double-double (12.5 ppg, 10.6 rpg) and has blocked 108 shots on the defensive end of the floor.

The two teams have previously met five times between 2004-07 when Stevens was also a member of the Skyline Conference, with FSC owning a 3-2 advantage in the series.

This marks Farmingdale State's eighth appearance in the tourney, including last year's first-round match-up in Hampden-Sydney against eventual national champion Christopher Newport (Va.) University. The Rams are 5-7 overall in NCAA play, including a quarterfinals appearance in 2009 and second-round stints both in 2006 and 2012.

Hurowitz was named Player of the Year in the Skyline Conference this week, and is now a two-time first-team All-Skyline Conference selection. He enters NCAA play as the No. 6 all-time leading scorer at FSC with 1,269 points, as he sits 22 points away from current Rams assistant coach, George Riefenstahl (2015-19), from the No. 5 spot on the list. Hurowitz is shooting .501 (195-of-389) from the field and .417 (60-of-144) from 3-point range this year, and leads the Rams with averages of 19.5 points and 8.5 rebounds per contest.

Powell (13.4 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 26 steals) was selected as the Skyline's Defensive Player of the Year, and earned his first-team all-conference praise after two-straight, second-team selections. He is the only player in Skyline history to earn consecutive Most Outstanding Player awards in the conference championship. Powell is shooting .535 (144-of-269) from the field, and ranks seventh on the FSC list with 1,182 points -- as he passed AJ Matthews (2011-13; 1,169 points) for the seventh spot with his effort in the championship final.

Senior guard Aaron Davis (Valley Stream, N.Y.) -- Powell's teammate at Valley Stream South High School -- received second-team All-Skyline Conference kudos, and has dropped in 61 3-point field goals on his way to a 14.4 points per game average. Including his first year of collegiate eligibility in 2019-20 at SUNY Geneseo, the third-year Ram has 1,038 career points (176 at Geneseo, and 862 at Farmingdale State). Combined with Hurowitz and Davis, this marks the first time in program history that the Rams have three 1,000-point scorers on the floor in the same season since Farmingdale State became a full NCAA Division III member in 2001-02.

Senior point guard Jevon Santos (Elmont, N.Y.), in his third year at the school, has a school-record 367 assists in his time in the green and white. His three season assist totals at FSC -- including 121 this season, rank in the top-six on the school leaderboard.

Freshman forward Kentrell Evans (Brooklyn, N.Y.) became FSC's first Skyline Rookie of the Year selection since Riefenstahl earned the accolade in the 2015-16 season as a student-athlete. Evans entered the Rams' starting lineup after the New Year, and has blocked a team-high 25 shots while shooting .631 (77-of-122) from the field and averaging 6.8 points and 6.4 rebounds per outing.

Twomey was voted as the Skyline Conference's Coach of the Year by his peers for the second time in his career (2015-16). The Rams' 26 wins are the second-most in program history (27, during the 2008-09 national quarterfinals season), while their .929 winning percentage is the top mark on the Farmingdale State ledger. In 10 full seasons with the Rams, Twomey owns a record of 178-94 (.654), and his overall record in 11 seasons -- including the 2012-13 season at Centenary (N.J.) -- is 191-107 (.641).