COLCHESTER, Vt. - The ninth-seeded Saint Michael's College men's basketball team begins postseason play on Friday at eighth-seeded University of New Haven for a Northeast-10 Conference Championship first-round contest at 7 p.m. in the Jeffery P. Hazell Athletics Center in West Haven, Conn.
 
The winner of Friday's contest heads to top-seeded Adelphi University, ranked 17th in the latest D2 CSC national poll, on Sunday for a quarterfinal at 1:30 p.m. Semifinals are scheduled for March 5 before the title game is March 8. The winner receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Division II Tournament. Tickets for all postseason games are $10 for adults, $5 for senior citizens and children, and free for students at NE10 schools with a valid ID.
 
The Purple Knights split their regular-season series with New Haven, earning a 74-73 win at home just last Saturday when senior CJ Crews (Tampa, Fla./Bayshore Christian School) hit the tying and winning free throws with six seconds left in overtime. He ended the day with a career-high-tying 33 points. The Chargers took their home contest on Jan. 18, 80-70, as the visitors trimmed a 17-point deficit to four in the final minutes. Redshirt first-year Greg Kenney (Williston Park, N.Y./The Frederick Gunn School/LIU) scored a team-high 18 points off the bench. The teams have met in the postseason only once, an 83-65 New Haven win at home in a 2014 quarterfinal.
 
Saint Michael's lost both regular-season meetings with Adelphi, 74-50 on Jan. 5 in Colchester and 107-92 on Feb. 15 in Garden City, N.Y. The teams have never squared off in a conference tournament, only facing each other in the NCAA Tournament, where the Purple Knights hold a 2-1 edge.
 
Under sixth-year head coach Eric Eaton, the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) East District Coach of the Year and NE10 Coach of the Year for the 2023-24 season, the Purple Knights lead the league in rebounding (39.5) and free throw percentage (75.7) while taking second in offensive rebounding (12.1) and third in made three-pointers per game (9.3).
 
Crews, the 19th-leading scorer in program history (1,362), is third in the NE10 in scoring (17.9) while knocking down a league-high 83 three-pointers and adding 5.3 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.1 steals. Senior Alan Brzezinski (Örebro, Sweden/Western Reserve Academy) missed 16 games due to injury before returning on Saturday, and averages 13.5 points on 90.5% free throw shooting with 5.8 rebounds and 1.2 steals. First-year Rico Byrd (East Moline, Ill./The Kiski School) rounds out a trio of double-digit scorers with 10.3 points to go along with 4.1 boards and 3.4 assists, with the latter good for a tie for ninth in the NE10.
 
Senior Jacob Duniver (Fredericksburg, Va./Woodstock Academy) contributes 9.1 points and 4.6 rebounds while hitting 54 threes at a team-best 38.6% clip, and junior Nolan Marold (Highlands Ranch, Colo./Brewster Academy/Loyola Chicago) scores 7.8 points on 53.0% shooting with 6.1 rebounds. Marold is fourth in the league in blocks (1.1) and stands fifth in offensive rebounding (2.5). Kenney adds 7.1 points.