SoCon men’s basketball tournament bracket set

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Regular-season Southern Conference champion Chattanooga is the No. 1 seed in the Ingles Southern Conference Men’s Basketball Championship, which takes place March 7-10 at Harrah’s Cherokee Center – Asheville in Asheville, North Carolina.
 
The tournament begins Friday, March 7, with a pair of first-round games. Four quarterfinal games follow on Saturday, March 8, with the semifinals on Sunday, March 9, and the title game on Monday, March 10, at 7 p.m. The semifinals will air on ESPNU, while Monday’s championship game will air live on ESPN or ESPN2. The other six games will air on ESPN+, with Friday’s first round matchups also appearing on select Nexstar affiliates.

Chattanooga locked up the outright regular season crown with a 75-63 win at UNCG on Feb. 27. The Mocs’ win over the Spartans clinched the program’s first regular season crown in three seasons. Chattanooga enters the postseason on a 11-game winning streak with a 23-8 overall record and 15-3 mark in SoCon play. Three wins in Asheville will give the Mocs their 13th SoCon Tournament title.

Chattanooga opens play on Saturday, March 8, at noon, where it will face either No. 8 seed Mercer (13-18, 6-12) or No. 9 seed Western Carolina (8-21, 4-14), who will square off in the first round on Friday at 5 p.m. This will be the third meeting all-time between Mercer and Western Carolina in the SoCon tournament. The two teams split the first two matchups, with the Catamounts winning 70-56 in 2020 and the Bears winning 81-53 in 2022. 

Friday’s second contest will see No. 7 seed VMI (13-18, 7-11) take on No. 10 seed The Citadel (5-24, 0-18) at 7:30 p.m. VMI will be looking for its first win over The Citadel in the SoCon tournament as the Bulldogs won the previous three meetings in postseason play by an average of 9.7 points. This season, the Keydets won the regular season games on Jan. 18 and Feb. 8, 75-70 and 82-70, respectively.

The winner of that contest will advance to face No. 2 seed UNCG on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. The Spartans, who turned in their third straight 20-win season at 20-11 overall and 13-5 in SoCon play, swept both VMI and The Citadel this season. UNCG will be looking for its first conference title since 2021.

Saturday’s third game will see No. 3 seed ETSU (19-12, 12-6) take on No. 6 seed Wofford (16-15, 10-8) at 6 p.m. The Bucs and the Terriers split their two games this season. Wofford topped ETSU, 81-78, on Jan. 4, in Johnson City, Tennessee, while the Buccaneers won 73-68 on Feb. 22, in Spartanburg, South Carolina. ETSU is looking for its first tournament title since 2020, while Wofford last won the tournament in 2019.
 
No. 4 seed Samford (22-9, 12-6) will take on No. 5 seed Furman (23-8, 11-7) in the final quarterfinal game on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. The game will be a matchup of the last two tournament champions as the Bulldogs won the title last season and the Paladins won in 2023. Furman won both the matchups between the two squads in the regular season. On Jan. 29, the Paladins won, 72-70, at home, and triumphed, 80-72, on Feb. 19, in Birmingham, Alabama.

2025 Ingles Southern Conference Men’s Basketball Championship
Friday, March 7 (ESPN+/Nexstar)
Game 1 - (8) Mercer vs. (9) Western Carolina, 5 p.m.
Game 2 - (7) VMI vs. (10) The Citadel, 7:30 p.m.
 
Saturday, March 8 (ESPN+)
Game 3 - (1) Chattanooga vs. Game 1 winner, Noon
Game 4 - (2) UNCG vs. Game 2 winner, 2:30 p.m.

Game 5 - (3) ETSU vs. (6) Wofford, 6 p.m.

Game 6 - (4) Samford vs. (5) Furman, 8:30 p.m.
 
Sunday, March 9 (ESPNU)
Game 7 - Game 3 winner vs. Game 6 winner, 4 p.m.
Game 8 - Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 6:30 p.m.
 
Monday, March 10 (ESPN or ESPN2)
Championship game, 7 p.m.