ANGOLA, Ind. – The Trine University men's basketball team will enter the 2024 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament ranked #13 in the most recent D3hoops.com Top 25 poll. The Thunder will be hosting and competing in their first NCAA Tournament in program history on Friday, March 1 and Saturday, March 2.

Trine takes on Fontbonne University in their First Round game on Friday with tip-off coming at 8:10 p.m. This will be the first meeting between the two programs in school history. The Griffins are coming off a St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC) Championship win over Spalding University, 80-48. The Thunder received an at-large bid to the event after coming up short in overtime to Hope College in the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) Championship game, 72-68.

Trine had five student-athletes receive postseason honors from the MIAA in Cortez Garland (First Team All-MIAA), Fred Garland (First Team All-MIAA), Aidan Smylie (Second Team All-MIAA), Brent Cox (Second Team All-MIAA) and Emmanuel Megnanglo (Defensive Player of the Year). Recently, the team has gotten contributions elsewhere, showing versatility on the offensive and defensive ends of the floor. Nate Tucker led the team in scoring in the Championship game with 14 points on 6-of-10 from the field and he brought down seven rebounds. Grant Pahl had 11 points in the MIAA Semifinals and the game-winning block after Adrian College had a chance to tie or take the lead.

In the neutral site game being played at the MTI Center on Friday, Coe College is ranked #25 by D3hoops.com and Wabash College is receiving votes. That game will tip-off at 5:40 p.m. with the Trine versus Fontbonne game to follow. The winners will meet at 8:10 p.m. on Saturday to determine who will reach the NCAA Sectional Semifinals.