Randy Payton

Rio Grande Sports Information

 

RIO GRANDE — The University of Rio Grande men’s and women’s basketball squads will play host to the 33rd Annual Bevo Francis Invitational Tournament on Friday and Saturday at the Newt Oliver Arena.

Mount Vernon Nazarene University, Ohio University-Lancaster and Wright State University-Lake join the host RedStorm in the men’s bracket, while the women’s division also includes Mount Vernon Nazarene, OU-Lancaster and Wilberforce University.

Game times are set for 2 p.m., 4 p.m., 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Friday, while Saturday’s contests are slated for 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m. and 5 p.m.

Rio Grande’s teams will play back-to-back in the final two games of each day.

The Rio Grande men feature senior defensive stopper Travis Elliott who played for the Ironton Fighting Tigers.

The weekend’s festivities also will include the induction of the 2001 Rio Grande men’s team — the only one in school history to reach the Final Four of the NAIA National Tournament — into the school’s athletic Wall of Honor, as well as a special recognition of military veterans in attendance prior to Friday night’s final game.

On Saturday, two of the latest inductees to the Rio Grande Athletic Hall of Fame — Josh Perry and Andrea Lotcyz — will be introduced between the conclusion of the Rio women’s game and the start of the Rio men’s game.

Former Rio men’s soccer standouts Simon Carey and Tony Griffiths are also part of the HOF Class, but were inducted earlier in the fall because they can’t be in attendance.

The Hall of Fame Induction Banquet is set for Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Davis University Center, with social time getting underway at 6:30 p.m.

The tournament schedule itself gets underway on Friday at 2 p.m. with Mount Vernon Nazarene meeting Wilberforce in a women’s division game before Mount Vernon Nazarene squares off with OU-Lancaster in the first men’s game of the day at 4 p.m.

The final two games of the day feature the host RedStorm entertaining Ohio-Lancaster in women’s action at 6 p.m., with the Rio men playing Wright State-Lake at approximately 8 p.m.

Both Rio Grande teams are coming off losses at the University of the Cumberlands on Tuesday night.

The Rio Grande women suffered their first setback in three outings, dropping a 61-48 decision to the Patriots. The RedStorm committed a season-high 27 turnovers.

The Rio men slipped to 4-2 on the season with a 90-72 loss to Cumberlands – a game which saw the RedStorm outscored 20-6 over the final six minutes.

Saturday’s action will begin early with OU-Lancaster facing either MVNU or Wilberforce at 11 a.m. in women’s play, while Wright State-Lake will then take on either Mount Vernon or OU-Lancaster in men’s action at 1 p.m.

The Rio women and men will conclude the tournament with Saturday tipoffs of 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. respectively.

Live video and play-by-play of all eight games of the tourney can be seen at http://portal.stretchinternet.com/rio with pregame for the Rio Grande games begining approximately 15 minutes prior to the scheduled tipoff.