With the NAIA Tournament getting underway tonight at Claflin, the Voorhees Tigers will play the waiting game.

As the second seed in a field of six, the Tigers will play the winner of Friday's contest between Park University and Allen University Saturday at 8 p.m. Without knowing which team his team will play, head coach Andre Williams and the Tigers will have some difficulty preparing for their semifinal matchup.

"When you think a team is going to win," Williams said, "you focus more of your energy on the team you figure will win, but you mostly concentrate on your own team."

The Tigers (19-10) will not play in opening round action on Friday because they have earned one of the top two seeds. Nevertheless, they have a sense of urgency now that it's tournament time.

"It's all or nothing," Williams said. "We know if we don't win this Independent Tournament, we're home. If we win it, we know we've reached our ultimate goal of getting into the National Tournament."

If Voorhees needs something to motivate them, they can revisit last year's tournament semifinal loss to Mountain State.

"We played those seniors so hard," Williams said, "and we were disappointed that we weren't able to move on to the National Tournament. I believe the disappointment of how it was losing in the semifinals stuck with the guys."

To advance, Williams believes Voorhees will need a good shooting performance from the perimeter. Plus, the Tigers will have to step up on defense.

"Overall, I don't think we do a good enough job defensively to get key stops," Williams said. "There have been plenty of times we could have won key games, but we couldn't get the key stops."

Even though they've had a successful year and they're one of three universities hosting the tournament, Williams does not think that there is a lot of pressure on his team to do well this weekend.

"I don't think there is pressure," Williams said. "but internally, yes, because we want to get back to the National Tournament. When you've gone your first three out of four years, we don't want to be out of the big dance two years in a row."

BRACKETS

Friday, March 7, 2008

Game 1 - #3 Park University (15-12) versus vs. #6 Allen University (4-25) -Men 4:30PM

Game 2 - #4 Morris College (8-21) versus. #5 Allen University (0-27) - Women 6:30PM

Game 3 - #4 Brescia University (7-22) versus. #5 Morris College (5-21) - Men 8:30PM

Saturday, March 8, 2008 Semifinals

Game 4 - #1 Brescia University (16-12) versus Allen/Morris - Women 2:00PM

Game 5 - #1 Mountain State University (26-2) versus Brescia/Morris - Men 4:00PM

Game 6 - #2 Park University (14-14) versus Voorhees College(15-15) - Women 6:00PM

Game 7 - #2 Voorhees College (15-11) versus Allen/Park - Men) 8:00PM

Sunday, March 9, 2008 CHAMPIONSHIP

Women's Championship Game 2:00PM Arena

Men's Championship Game 4:30 PM Arena

-- T&D Sports Writer Emery Glover can be reached by e-mail at eglover@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5532. Check out his blog, Cover 2, at www.thetandd.com. --

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