For both Presbyterian College basketball teams, winning the Hercules Tires Big South Championship tournament is a long shot, but not as long as in the four years preceding it.

For instance, the Blue Hose men avoided a play-in game for the first time in Quinton Ferrell’s five years as head coach. Winning the tournament – and a berth in the NCAA Tournament – requires three wins, not four.

Alaura Sharp’s women won five their last six Big South games. The men, 4-3 down the stretch, haven’t suffered a double-figure loss since High Point beat them by 10 on Feb. 3.

In the women’s bracket, Presbyterian (17-14, 8-8 BSC) is matched against the same team it played Saturday, Charleston Southern (11-18, 8-8).

The Buccaneers won, 68-49, and swept the Blue Hose this season. The teams meet again on Thursday at the tournament site, Qubein Center in High Point, N.C. beginning at 2 p.m.

Charleston Southern broke a three-way tie for fourth place by virtue of sweeping both the Blue Hose and Winthrop, leaving the Bucs seeded fourth, the Blue Hose fifth and the Eagles sixth. PC swept Winthrop.

The winner of No. 5 Presbyterian vs No. 4 Charleston Southern will move on to the semifinals to face the winner of the No. 1 High Point versus the play-in winner, either Gardner-Webb or UNC Asheville, in the 11:30 a.m. Thursday game. From there the winner will continue on to play on Sunday in the Big South Championship to see who will be cutting down the nets that night.

The semifinals are at 6 and 8 p.m. on Saturday, with the finals on Sunday.

Charleston Southern’s Kennedi Jackson ranks fourth in the league in scoring with an average of 14.5 points. Madison Adamson is second in rebounding with an 8.3 average.

PC’s Bryanna Brady leads the Big South in field-goal percentage at .507. Mara Neira is fourth in three-point percentage at .333. Brady (12.4), Tilda Sjokvist (12.1) and Neira (11.5) are seventh, eighth and 10^th in scoring.

Presbyterian has only played the Buccaneers one time in the postseason, in 2015, when PC won 47-39 before falling to High Point in the semifinals. The Blue Hose have a 7-10 Big South tournament record with two wins over Longwood and Winthrop and one apiece versus Charleston Southern, Gardner-Webb and High Point.

Nine different PC players have scored in double figures in at least one game this season.

Wednesday marks the 34th time that the teams have met since Presbyterian joined Division I in 2007. PC leads the series, 18-15.

Ferrell’s sixth-seeded Blue Hose don’t play until Friday, when they face No. 3 Gardner-Webb (16-15, 11-5), which they edged, 77-75, on Feb. 7 at Templeton Center. The Bulldogs won, 76-60, on Jan. 13 in Boiling Springs, N.C.

Game time is 8 p.m.

The Bulldogs don’t have a scorer in the Big South’s top 10. Caleb Robinson averages 13.2 (15^th), Julien Soumaoro 13.1 (16^th) and D.Q. Nichols 12.1 (20^th). Robinson averages 6.6 rebounds (sixth). Ademide Badmus and Isaiah Richards each average 4.6, tying them for 17^th, tying them for 17^th along with PC’s Kobe Stewart.

The Blue Hose are similarly balanced. Marquis Barnett is seventh in the BSC in scoring (15.0) and Samage Teel 14^th (13.2). PC’s top rebounders – Jonah Pierce (4.9), Kaleb Scott (4.6) and Barnett (4.6) – rank 15^th, 16^th and 20^th.

Barnett leads the BSC in steals per game (1.9) and ranks second in the conference in shooting percentage at .505.

PC, as a team, boasts the highest field-goal percentage (.476), while Gardner-Webb ranks third in field-goal percentage defense (.433). The teams rank second (PC, 14.3) and fourth (GWU, 12.6) in assists per game.

A victory puts the Blue Hose in Saturday’s semifinals at 2 p.m., matching up against the UNC Asheville-Charleston Southern winner.

Host High Point is the top-seeded team in both the men’s and women’s brackets.

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