River Hawks Slated to Meet Stony Brook in First Round of AE Playoffs

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DURHAM, N.H. – The UMass Lowell River Hawks men’s basketball team has earned the sixth seed for the 2021 Hercules Tires America East Men’s Basketball Playoffs and is slated to take on No. 7 Stony Brook in a first-round matchup on Saturday, February 27 at 1 p.m. in Durham.

The tournament will feature a different format this year, beginning with pod play at two sites. The River Hawks will be part of the three-team pod hosted by No. 3 New Hampshire on Feb. 27-28. The winner of the UMass Lowell vs. Stony Brook game will advance to take on the Wildcats on Sunday, playing for a chance to advance to the semifinals.

The River Hawks finished the shortened 2020-21 regular season with an 8-11 overall record and a 7-8 mark in America East games. The seven conference wins rank second on the program’s Division I record list.

UMass Lowell has now finished sixth or higher every year since joining the America East Conference back in 2013-14 and is looking for its first post-season victory at the Division I level since becoming eligible for the tournament in 2017-18.

Stony Brook, who owns a 9-13 overall record, went 7-9 in America East games this year to take the seventh seed. Heading into this season’s conference tournament, the team split its most recent conference series at UAlbany.

The River Hawks and Seawolves have met 24 times in the sport of men’s basketball, as SBU leads the all-time series, 19-5. This season, Stony Brook defeated UMass Lowell in a pair of games at the IFCU Arena on December 27-28.

The tournament field will re-seed after the pods with the lowest-remaining seed playing at UMBC at 2 p.m. on March 6 and the highest-remaining seed playing at Vermont at 4 p.m. that same day. The two semifinal winners will play for the America East title and an automatic NCAA bid on Saturday, March 13 at 11 a.m. at the highest remaining seed’s home court.

All 2021 Hercules Tires #AEPlayoffs action can be watched on ESPN networks. The quarter and semifinals will air on ESPN+ as part of The AE on ESPN. The championship game will be nationally televised on ESPN2. All rounds will also be available via the ESPN app.