Tourney Website

DE PERE, Wis. – The Grinnell College men's basketball team will take to the floor Friday afternoon in the opening round of the 2015 Midwest Conference Tournament, hosted by St. Norbert College.
 
The Pioneers take on Monmouth College at 3:30 p.m. Grinnell is the third seed in the tourney and owns a 14-9 mark while going 12-6 in league play. Monmouth is the second seed.
 
This is Grinnell's 13th trip to the league tourney in the last 15 years.
 
The teams split in the regular season, with Monmouth earning a 119-114 win at Grinnell in November and the Pioneers returning the victory with a 108-82 win on the Fighting Scots' floor earlier this month.
 
Jack Taylor '15 leads the Pioneers with a nation-best 29.2 points per game. Luke Yeager '15 checks in with 23.0 points an outing, Julian Marx '17 is scoring 12.1 a game and Braedon Bayer '18 averages 10.8.
 
Taylor is 13 points away from reaching the 2,000-point mark for his career (including games played at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse) and Yeager is 10 shy of the 1,500-point mark.
 
Monmouth is 16-7 on the season and went 13-5 in MWC action. Andrew Mathison averages 14.9 points per game for the Fighting Scots and Will Jones is scoring 14.5. Jon Calhoun is next in line with 9.0 an outing.
 
In the other semifinal, top-seeded and third-ranked St. Norbert entertains fourth-seeded Ripon College at 8 p.m. Friday. The winners meet in the title game at 6 p.m. Saturday for the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III National Tournament.