KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The University of St. Francis men's basketball team is heading to Winona Lake, Ind. after it learned its bracket positioning in the 64 team NAIA National Tournament Opening Round on Thursday night. The Saints (25-5) will compete in the Winona Lake Bracket of the Cramer Quadrant, which will be hosted by NAIA No. 7-ranked Grace University (Ind.) next Friday and Saturday (March 14-15).

The winners of each of the 16 four-team brackets advance to the NAIA National Tournament Final Site, which is Kansas City, Mo.  That tournament takes place March 20-25 at Municipal Auditorium.  

Head coach Ryan Marks' club is the No. 3 seed in the four-team Winona Lake Bracket and will square off against NAIA No. 20-ranked University of Pikeville (24-6) at 6 pm CST on Friday.  Both the Fighting Saints (Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference) and the No. 2-seeded Bears (Appalachian Athletic Conference) earned their bids by winning their respective regular-season conference titles.

Top-seeded Grace University (26-5) will host No. 4 seed Carolina University (13-15) in the 4 pm CST game on Friday.  Grace gained its Opening Round bid by winning the Crossroads League regular-season and tournament titles, while Carolina claimed the Continental Athletic Conference Tournament title.

The two winners of Friday's contests advance to Saturday's 4 pm CST championship game for the right to go to the Final Site one week later in Kansas City.

For complete NAIA National Tournament Opening Round information, go to NAIA.

For the full NAIA National Tournament Bracket, go to Bracket.

You can keep up with everything happening around USF Athletics on X @USFSaints.