After claiming a share of its 12th MIAA regular season title, the Northwest Missouri State Bearcat men’s basketball team moved to No. 4 in the NCAA South Central Region Rankings Wednesday announced by the rankings committee.

The Bearcats jumped three spots to No. 4 after sitting at No. 7 last week. Northwest stands at 21-5 heading into this week’s MIAA Men’s Basketball Championships as the No. 3 seed. Northwest takes on Southwest Baptist in the first-round at 8:15 p.m. Friday.

Midwestern State held onto the No. 1 spot after claiming a share of the Lone Star Conference regular season title and earning the 1-seed at this week’s LSC Championships.

Tarleton State also remained at No. 2 as Arkansas Tech held steady at No. 3 for the third week in a row.

Co-MIAA Champion Washburn checks in at No. 5 behind Northwest with Missouri Southern at No. 6, West Texas A&M at No. 7 and Co-MIAA Champion Central Missouri rounding out the top eight.

Texas A&M-International sits at No. 9 while Cameron joins the top 10 for the first time.

The South Central Region is made up of teams from the MIAA, Lone Star Conference, Heartland Conference and Great American Conference. Conference tournaments are this week for all four conferences. The winners of the MIAA, LSC and Heartland receive automatic bids to the eight-team NCAA South Central Region tournament, and the remaining five seeds are filled by at-large bids based on NCAA rankings. The newly-formed GAC does not have an automatic bid.

— NWMSU Sports Information —