Kearney, Neb. – Both Nebraska Kearney basketball teams are jockeying for postseason position with the regular season ending this weekend at Northeastern State (Thursday night) and Central Oklahoma (Saturday afternoon).

Check the Loper schedule pages (women … men) for times and media links.

On the men's side, UNK (16-8, 11-6) is in sole possession of fifth place in the league standings. The Lopers can grab one of the coveted first round byes (seeds one through four) in the MIAA Tournament if it goes 2-0 this weekend and either Lindenwood loses Wednesday or Pittsburg State losses twice this weekend.

If all that doesn't happen, Kearney will host a first round game Monday, March 2nd, at 7:00 p.m. The opponent could be any number of clubs since just four games separate the top nine in the standings.

The Loper women (11-15, 5-12) are in 11th in place in the MIAA and likely are headed out on the road for a first round game on Tuesday, March 3rd. While Kearney hasn't secured one of the 12 bids to the league tourney, a lot would have top happen to keep the Lopers out of the postseason.

The RiverHawk women (11-13, 7-10) are two games ahead of UNK in the standings but UNK beat NSU, 61-49, back in January.

A defensive minded team that relies on the three ball to score, the 'Hawks upset nationally-ranked Emporia State, 58-56 (OT), on the road recently to allow head coach Randy Gipson reach 300 career wins.

The NSU men are 6-18 (4-13) and fighting to make the tournament. Ranked 14th in the MIAA in scoring defense (78.7), FG pct. defense (49.9%) and FG pct. (40.8%), the RiverHawks have one player taller than 6-6, leading to a -7.9 rebounding mar­gin.

 
UNK out boarded the 'Hawks 33-25 in an 83-59 win at the H & S Center on January 15th. In the win, Loper junior Connor Beranek went 8 of 12 from the arc to score 32; he is 21 of 57 from the three point line in the other 23 games.
 
The top scorer in the MIAA at 19.4, Beranek needs just 46 more points to reach 1,000 in his Loper career. Throw in his freshman season at Doane and the Ravenna native has 1,446 career points.
 
The league's second leading scorer, junior Ethan Brozek (17.7), needs only 16 more points to reach 1,000. He'll be the 40th Loper to do so.
 
For the Loper women, junior point guard Alexa Hogberg (Chandler, Ariz.) is the MIAA assist leader at 5.04 per game. Her 131 dimes to date are sixth most in school history with a productive weekend likely vaulting her up to third.
 
Finally, junior Laramey Lewis (52) and freshman McKenzie Brown (49) are both about to move onto the Loper single season threes made list. Angie Osborn currently ranks 10th with 56 during the 1993-94 season.