Arizona Western College is proud to announce that the AWC Men's Basketball team-who captured their 5th Region I Division I Championship in the last 8 years last Saturday night-will face 4th-ranked College of Southern Idaho in the District I Finals this Tuesday night, March 13th, in Twin Falls, Idaho. The announcement of the opponent and venue was made Saturday night after CSI won the Region XVII Division I Championship in Salt Lake City, Utah. It will be the third time that the Matadors have secured a berth in the District I Finals since the round was created in 2007, and the second time that they will face the Golden Eagles at this point in the season after falling to the Golden Eagles, 99-89, in the 2007 District I Finals in Salt Lake City.

While the Matadors have spent the last week in limbo-realizing that they'd have to prepare for this game without knowing who their opponent would be until 72 hours prior to Tuesday's tipoff-it comes as no surprise to them that CSI is the team that will host them. The Matadors will certainly be rested coming into the contest, since they haven't taken the court since winning the Region I title with an impressive 57-51 victory over Central Arizona College in front of sellout crowd at ëThe House' on the AWC campus. Renan Lenz scored 15 of his game-high 23 points in the second half as the 2nd-seeded Matadors powered from behind to win the championship in Charles Harral's first year at the helm of the program. It was the second straight playoff game in which the Matadors faced a 2nd-half deficit but were able to finish strong to advance to the next round, since they also dispatched Eastern Arizona College, 66-53, in a similar fashion in the Region I Semifinals. The Matadors will take a 26-6 overall record into the contest, and will be looking for their first win in the District I Finals after losing to eventual national champion Salt Lake Community College in the 2009 District I Finals in Scottsdale. They'll also be seeking their first trip to Hutchinson, Kansas, and the NJCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament since 2006.

The team they're facing is back in the Region XVIII Winner's Circle for the 2nd straight year, but also faced a lot of adversity in the Region XVIII Tournament to arrive at this point. The top-seeded Golden Eagles were considered the favorite of the five-team field, but got tremendous challenges in both of their games. Friday night, they faced 4th-seeded Snow College, who stayed right on the heels of the Golden Eagles throughout the contest, rarely falling behind by more than six points. Snow's three-point shooting in the final two minutes brought them within a point, but CSI's stingy defense held the Badgers scoreless in their final three possessions in prevailing, 68-65. That put them in the finals against their Idaho archrivals, North Idaho College, who took it to the Golden Eagles throughout the first half. The Cardinals led by as many as seven in the first half before seeing CSI make a late run to take a 28-26 halftime lead. In the second half, it was much the same trend as NIC opened the 2nd half on a 14-4 run to take their largest lead of the game at 40-32, only to see the Golden Eagles come roaring back to come away with a 58-52 victory. The Golden Eagles will make their second consecutive appearance in the District I Finals after defeating last year's Region I Champion, Cochise College, 94-75, in last year's contest. They'll be seeking the chance to head to ëHutch' and defend the national title that they won last March after winning five of their tournament games, including defeating Midland College (TX), 82-74, in the championship game.

The Matadors and Golden Eagles will square off at the CSI Gymnasium on the CSI campus in Twin Falls at 8PM Arizona time Tuesday night. Those who can't make the trip to the game can catch all of the game's action LIVE on the Matador Sports Network's radio and internet audio hubs: SportsRadio 560 KBLU in Yuma on the radio; and the AWC Athletics website (www.azwestern.edu/athletics) as well as the SportsRadio 560 KBLU website (www.kbluam.com) on the internet. The Matador Basketball Pre-Game Show will kick off the coverage at 7:30PM Arizona time Tuesday night, with tipoff LIVE at 8PM.