Tuesday Afternoon Sports Briefs: Division III conference hoops tourneys begin this week

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Conference tournaments begin tonight for men’s teams in the NAC, and for women’s teams in the WIAC.

On the men’s side, eight teams will square off in this evening’s quarter-finals in the Northern Athletics Conference men’s tourney. Top-seeded Concordia-Mequon will host Marian. Number-Two Benedictine entertains Aurora. Third-seeded Edgewood hosts Rockford. And Number-four Concordia-Chicago hosts fifth-seeded Lakeland. Semifinals are set for Thursday night, with the title game on Saturday.

In the WIAC women’s tournament, regular season co-champions UW-Stevens Point and Eau Claire have first-round byes. Number-three Whitewater hosts Superior tonight, while fourth-seeded River Falls is at home against Number-five La Crosse. Tonight’s winners will travel to Eau Claire and top-seeded Stevens Point for the semi-finals on Thursday night. The title game is set for Saturday.

The WIAC men’s tournament and the NAC women’s tourney will open tomorrow night. Midwest Conference teams and the Carthage women in CCIW will play their league tournament openers on Friday.

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For the third time this season, the Milwaukee Admirals’ top scorer has been called up to the NHL. Forward Chris Mueller was promoted again this morning to the Admirals’ parent club in Nashville. He leads the Admirals with 38 points, which includes 23 goals in 48 games. American Hockey League with six game-winning goals for Milwaukee. Mueller has been in four games for the Nashville Predators this season, and has yet to score a point for that team. The Admirals’ next game is on Friday night, when they host Abbotsford.

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The Milwaukee Bucks are not sure if injured center Drew Gooden and rookie forward Tobias Harris can return for tomorrow night’s game at Chicago. It’s the last contest before the All-Star break – and coach Scott Skiles might opt to give those players some extra rest into next week. Gooden has missed three games with a sprained right wrist. He was starting in place of the injured Andrew Bogut, and Skiles has taken a committee approach to filling the middle in the meantime. Harris has missed two games since he suffered a right shoulder contusion that drove him to the floor during last Friday night’s loss at Orlando. The Bucks are 13-19. They’ll close out against a strong Chicago team that’s 26-8.

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Milwaukee area native Ben Averkamp of Loyola is the men’s basketball player-of-the-week in the Horizon League. Averkamp, a junior forward from Germantown, averaged 21 points, eight rebounds, and four-and-a-half assists in a pair of games for the Ramblers last week. Sarah Hamm of Butler is the honored women’s player.

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Durell Busby of UW-Milwaukee has been named the Horizon League men’s indoor track athlete-of-the-week. And Matt Jensen of UWM is the honored field athlete. Busby, a junior from Tobago, beat out 10 other runners to win the 60-yard hurdles at the Panther Tune-Up in Milwaukee. His time of :7.79 seconds broke his own school record in the event. Jensen, a junior, had the second-longest weight-throw in UWM history with 17.38 meters. He also took second in the shot put at the Panther Tune-Up. Ariel Kirby of Illinois-Chicago was named the top Horizon League female track athlete, and Alison Szykowny of Loyola was the top women’s field athlete.

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Alex Oman of UW-Stout and Callie Halama of Eau Claire have been named the WIAC men’s-and-women’s basketball players of the week. Oman, a sophomore forward, hit a three-pointer at the final buzzer in regulation to help Stout win in overtime against then-12th-ranked Stevens Point. Oman also made the go-ahead free throws in a three-point victory over Oshkosh. Halama, a senior forward, had 27 points and 13 rebounds against the Pointers. And she made all nine of her shots from the floor and the free throw line in Eau Claire’s win over Platteville. Those accomplishments helped Halama get named to the national women’s Division III Team-of-the-Week from D3hoops.com.

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In indoor track, members of the Stevens Point distance medley relay team were named the athletes-of-the-week – Scott Berry, Babatunde Awoskia, Alex Steiner, and Dan Sullivan. The WIAC also recognized Ann Tank of Platteville in indoor track – Andy Novak of La Crosse and Traelynn Lewis of Superior in indoor field events – Jordan Kust of Stevens Point in wrestling – and Allyse Dieringer of Whitewater and Katherine Prouty of Stout in gymnastics.

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