IW basketball goes dancing

It’s now all or nothing for Iowa Wesleyan basketball, as the men and the women set their sights on the NAIA National Tournament.

Both squads earned the national tournament bid after making it to their conference championship, of which both were winners.

On Thursday night, the pair watched as their seeds and tournament locations were announced.

The Tiger men will be heading to Fort Wayne, Indiana for the opening round of the tournament.

Iowa Wesleyan received a No. 7 seed and will take on the host of the region in No. 10 seeded Evangel University.

“It feels great” (going to the tournament), Iowa Wesleyan lone senior Carver Locke said. “When I first got here we were still division III and if you would have asked me if we would be in this position then I would have said you’re crazy. It’s all worked out man and we have a great team and I’m really proud that I get to play with these guys. It’s a really surreal feeling.”

The matchup will take place on March 7 at 11 a.m. central time.

As for the Iowa Wesleyan women, they will be heading to Sioux Center, Iowa.

After receiving a No. 15 seed, the Tigers will take on region host and No. 2 seeded Dordt University.

“I’m really proud of our team and how we closed out the year,” junior forward Isabell West said. “I’m really glad that we could win the championship, but now we got a lock in for the tournament. The next couple of days we will work on going over our game plan so we can execute it on Tuesday.”

The Tigers and Defenders will clash on March 7 at 7 p.m.