The National Christian College Athletic Association gets its national tournament underway on Thursday. The seven-team Central Region will be played in the Payne Center at Oklahoma Christian.
The host Eagles (10-16) are the fifth seed and face fourth seeded Dallas Baptist (13-13) in the prime time game at 7:30 p.m. OC won both contests against DBU this season, including a 77-60 victory at home on Feb. 20.
The winner meets the top seed, Southern Nazarene (14-12), at 7:30 p.m. on Friday.
Mid-America Christian (17-11), the first team out of the NAIA national tournament, is the No. 3 seed and is matched with No. 6 seed Central Christian College [Kan.] (17-14) with a 5:30 p.m. start.
The winner of that game gets the winner of second seeded Colorado Christian University (15-12) and seventh seeded Crowley’s Ridge College [Ark.] (12-14), who play at 3:30 p.m.