Posted By Lynn Worthy, Sun Staff

The UMass Lowell River Hawks received the No. 3 seed in the NCAA Division 2 Men’s Basketball Tournament East Regional, and they will face Northeast-10 Conference rival and No. 6 seed Merrimack College on Saturday at C.W. Post's Edmund T. Pratt Recreational Center in Brookfield, N.Y.

UMass Lowell (21-7) and Merrimack (20-8) split the season series this year, each winning on the other's turf. The Warriors defeated UMass Lowell on Nov. 22 at the Costello Athletic Center (85-79) while the River Hawks exacted revenge at the Volpe Center (77-72) on Feb. 7.

Merrimack leads the all-time series with UMass Lowell 24-20 and has won three of the last four meetings. With a victory, UMass Lowell will face the winner between No. 2 Bentley and No. 7 Bridgeport Sunday.

The game also features a coaching match-up pitting teacher versus pupil in UML head coach Greg Herenda and Merrimack head coach Bert Hammell. A 1983 graduate of Merrimack, Herenda was a four-year standout and also served as an assistant coach from 1985-89.

UMass Lowell is 15-5 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and has never lost in the first round. Most recently, UMass Lowell, seeded No. 6, advanced to the 2006 NCAA Northeast Region Championship game (round of 16) at Stonehill, before falling 89-80.

The host C.W. Post Pioneers (27-0), which captured the East Coast Conference regular season and tournament titles, received the No. 1 seed and will play No. 8 Philadelphia (25-5), the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CAA) Tournament champion.

Bentley (24-6), the NE-10 regular season champion, was seeded No. 2 and meets No. 7 University of Bridgeport (20-8) while No. 4 Stonehill (21-7) faces No. 4 Assumption (22-9), the NE-10 Tournament champion.