Both Presbyterian College basketball teams enter the Hercules Tires Big South Conference Basketball Championship as long shots.

Pretty dangerous long shots.

Presbyterian (17-14, 8-8 BSC) is the fifth seed in the women’s bracket and opens on Thursday at 2 p.m. against No. 4 Charleston Southern (11-18, 8-8) again. The Buccaneers defeated Alaura Sharp’s Blue Hose twice in the regular season falling, 61-57, in the Big South opener and, 68-49, in the finale on Saturday.

Invariably, such scenarios are greeted by the cliché that it’s hard to beat a good team three times. PC was left with a bit more determination following Saturday’s shock in North Charleston.

Hope springs eternal. That’s another cliché.

The Blue Hose open at 2 p.m. on Thursday at the tournament site, Qubein Center at High Point University. It’s a convenient site since the Panthers are seeded first in both the women’s and men’s brackets.

Presbyterian earned the fifth seed following wins in five of its last six conference games. 
High Point earned the top seed for the tournament with a 13-2 Big South record. They await the winner of the No. 8 vs 9 seed featuring Gardner-Webb and UNC Asheville on Wednesday.The team to win that quarterfinal game faces the winner of PC-Charleston Southern on Saturday, March 9 in the first semifinal matchup.

On the other side of the bracket, second-seeded USC Upstate takes on the No. 7 seed, Longwood, with the winner advancing to play either No. 3-seeded Radford or No. 6 seed Winthrop.
The quarterfinals are Thursday and the semifinals set for Saturday and the championship game on Sunday. 
First Round – Wednesday, March 6 – ESPN+
Game 1: (8) Gardner-Webb vs. (9) UNC Asheville, 6 p.m.
Quarterfinals – Thursday, March 7 – ESPN+
Game 2: (1) High Point vs. 8/9 winner, 11:30 a.m. (Education Day)
Game 3: (4) Charleston Southern vs. (5) Presbyterian, 2 p.m.
Game 4: (2) USC Upstate vs. (7) Longwood, 6
Game 5: (3) Radford vs. (6) Winthrop, 8 

Semifinals – Saturday, March 9 – ESPN+
Game 6:  Semifinals – Game 2 winner vs. Game 3 winner, 6
Game 7:  Semifinals – Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 8 
Championship – Sunday, March 10 – ESPN2
Game 8:  Championship – Game 6 winner vs. Game 7 winner, 6

The Presbyterian men, who finished in a tie for fifth place, are seeded sixth in the tournament.

The Blue Hose (14-17, 6-10) face third-seeded Gardner-Webb (16-15, 11-5) in the quarterfinals at 8 p.m. on Friday. The teams split their regular-season meetings with each team winning on its home court.

The tournament begins with a first-round game between USC Upstate and Radford on Wednesday, matching USC Upstate and Radford. The winner of the Presbyterian-Gardner-Webb game faces the winner of second-seed UNC Asheville and seventh-seed Charleston Southern in the semifinals on Saturday at 2 p.m. The championship game is at noon on Sunday. The first three rounds of the tournament will be broadcast on ESPN+. The championship game will be televised on ESPN2.

First Round – Wednesday, March 6 – ESPN+

Game 1: (8) USC Upstate vs. (9) Radford, 8 p.m.

Quarterfinals – Friday, March 8 – ESPN+

Game 2: (1) High Point vs. 8/9 winner, noon

Game 3: (4) Winthrop vs. (5) Longwood, 2

Game 4: (2) UNC Asheville vs (7) Charleston Southern, 6

Game 5: (3) Gardner-Webb vs. (6) Presbyterian, 8.

Semifinals – Saturday, March 9 – ESPN+

Game 6:  Semifinals – Game 2 winner vs. Game 3 winner, noon

Game 7:  Semifinals – Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 2

Championship – Sunday, March 10 – ESPN2

Game 8:  Championship – Game 6 winner vs. Game 7 winner, noon

The Blue Hose of Quinton Ferrell swept the weekly Big South superlatives as senior guard Trevon Reddish-Rhone took Player of the Week and Kory Mincy won the freshman award for the fourth time.

Reddish, from Carrollton, Ga., averaged 13.5 points and 7.0 rebounds while shooting .692 (9/13) from the floor in Presbyterian’s two games.

Reddish-Rhone recorded his first “double double” this season and the second of his career with 11 points and 10 rebounds in Presbyterian’s road game at USC Upstate, which the Spartans won, 74-72.

He had his 11th double-figure scoring game of the season and the 41st of his career with 16 points (6/6 from the field) against Charleston Southern. He grabbed four rebounds with two steals in Presbyterian’s 72-65 win.

Mincy, from East Point, Ga., averaged 12 points while shooting .600 (9/15) in Presbyterian’s two games.

Mincy scored a season-high 17 points while connecting on a season-high four triples at Upstate.

He scored seven points versus Charleston Southern.

The Blue Hose (5-5) lost, 4-3, to South Carolina State (3-4) at home on Sunday afternoon.

The Bulldogs captured the doubles point with wins at Nos. 1-2. The Blue Hose won No. 3 with a 6-1 victory by Evgenios Vasilakis and Pedro Cardoso.

S.C. State won singles at Nos. 2, 3 and 6.

Presbyterian’s David Mamalat won 6-1, 6-1 victory at No. 4 singles. Cardoso tied the match at two with a 6-4, 6-1 win at No. 5, his third straight victory. Presbyterian’s Javier Matos won a hard-fought three-set match, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3, at No. 1.

Presbyterian continues its four-match homestand with a non-conference match against Samford at Templeton Tennis Courts on Thursday at 2 p.m.

The Big South women’s awards went to High Point guard Lauren Bevis(Spartanburg) and Charleston Southern forward Kennedi Jackson(New Orleans, La.), Co-Players of the Week, and Radford guard Joi Williams(Ashburn, Va.) is the Freshman of the Week.

Blue, Green, Purple & Red cannot solely be funded by advertising. There’s not enough room. If you like the coverage, please donate whatever you consider appropriate via Venmo at DHK Sports.

If you choose, make a monthly donation via Patreon. The Laurens County site is here. The Furman site is here.

Support the advertisers. They are all fine people who appreciate my attempts to restore coverage of local sports.

In the off chance you’d like to read my novels and other books, they’re available on Amazon and many prominent bookseller sites.

Photo galleries are posted on Instagram @furmanatt and @laurenscountysports.

Thanks for your support.