AUGUSTA, GA -- With the final weekend of the 2024-25 regular season completed, the Peach Belt Conference has released the bracket for the men's basketball tournament. Play will begin on Wednesday, March 5, with four quarterfinal games hosted by the higher seeds on campus. The four winners of those games will advance to the semifinals and finals hosted by the highest remaining seed on Marcy 8-9.
Columbus State is a top seed in the tournament for the first time since holding the west division top seed in 2016. Ranked #7 in the nation, the Cougars finished their regular-season on Sunday and enter the postseason with a 25-3 record, 16-2 in conference play, their most conference wins since the 2005-06 season. Winners of nine in a row, CSU will host eight-seeded Georgia Southwestern on Wednesday in Columbus.
USC Aiken and Augusta finished the regular season tied at 13-5 in conference play, but USC Aiken will take the #2 seed thanks to their season sweep of the Jaguars. The Pacers are a top two seed for the third year in a row and enter tournament play on a three-game winning streak. Augusta will be the third seed, the third time in the last four years the Jaguars have held one of the top three.
Just one year removed from starting their men's basketball program, the USC Beaufort Sand Sharks are the #4 seed and will host a game in their first PBC Tournament appearance. USCB is the #4 seed after finishing the regular season with a 19-9 overall record, 11-7 in conference play. Although not eligible to receive the NCAA automatic qualifier should they win as they are in their final year of transition to DII, the Sand Sharks are fully eligible to participate in the PBC Tournament.
Flagler, Lander and North Georgia all finished the season tied with 9-9 conference records and entered the league's three-way tiebreaker. Head-to-head results were first examined in a mini-conference with all three splitting games against one another, leaving them all with 2-2 marks. Records against the top seed were next and all three went 0-2 against Columbus State. Moving to #2, Lander was the only one of the three to have a win over USC Aiken, so they take the #5 seed and will travel to USC Beaufort on Wednesday.
North Georgia and Flagler then begin the two-way tiebreaker. They split their regular-season meetings and neither had a win against Columbus State or USC Aiken. North Georgia did defeat #3 Augusta back on Jan. 25 where Flagler was 0-2 against the Jaguars. UNG will be the #6 seed with Flagler the #7.
Georgia Southwestern finished the regular season with three straight wins to launch themselves into the tournament field as the #8 seed.
PBC Tournament Seeds
1. Columbus State
2. USC Aiken
3. Augusta
4. USC Beaufort
5. Lander
6. North Georgia
7. Flagler
8. Georgia Southwestern
PBC Tournament Schedule
Quarterfinals - Wednesday, March 5
#8 Georgia Southwestern at #1 Columbus State, 7:30
#7 Flagler at #2 USC Aiken, 7:30
#6 North Georgia at #3 Augusta, 7:30
#5 Lander at #4 USC Beaufort, 7:30