When the Guilford College men’s basketball team meets Berry College (Ga.) in the first round of the NCAA Division III Tournament at home Friday, it will be facing a team that has won 16 straight games and the Southern Athletic Association championship.

The Quakers and Vikings tip off at approximately 8 pm following a first-round matchup between Penn State Harrisburg and Hood College (Md.) that begins at 5:30. Friday’s winners meet Saturday at 8 pm at Ragan-Brown Fieldhouse in the second round of the 64-team tournament.

General admission tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students/children per day and will be available beginning one hour before game time at the door. Security will check all bags upon entry.

Guilford is 24-4 – including an 11-1 record at home – and is returning to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019, when it advanced four rounds and lost by 3 points in the sectional finals at Wisconsin-Oshkosh, the eventual national champion.

The Quakers, who were ranked No. 7 in the final regular-season national poll, lost in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference Tournament quarterfinals to Virginia Wesleyan University, 67-60 in Salem, Va., last Thursday.

Four ODAC teams are in the NCAA Tournament, including conference tournament champion Hampden-Sydney College (Va.), the nation’s No. 1-ranked team, and at-large selections Guilford, Randolph-Macon College (Va.) and Virginia Wesleyan.

Graduate students Tyler Dearman (20 points per game, 5 rebounds per game), a guard, and Julius Burch (11 ppg, 10 rpg), a forward, lead Guilford. Tyler was the ODAC Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year and Julius earned All-Conference honors.

Coach Tom Palombo has guided Guilford to multiple NCAA appearances including the 2009 and 2010 national semifinals. He has won 634 games in his head coaching career, 394 in 21 seasons of coaching men’s basketball at Guilford.

Berry has not lost since Jan. 1

Berry is 19-9 and has not lost since Jan. 1, when they dropped their final non-conference contest at home to defending national champion Christopher Newport University, 76-71. It defeated Rhodes College (Tenn.) 74-57 in the SAA final at home Sunday.

The Vikings are led by senior guard Blake Campbell, who averages 21 points and 5 rebounds per game. He’s scored more than 30 points in five games this season. Junior guard Braxton Benham averages 15 ppg and senior guard Chase Ellis, 13 ppg.

Guilford and Berry have met twice before, with the Quakers winning 68-58 in December 2018 in Mt. Berry, Ga., and 73-56 in November 2019 in Greensboro.

Berry is a 2,200-student liberal arts college located on 27,000 wooded acres in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in northwest Georgia.

Other teams competing at Guilford

Penn State Harrisburg is 24-4 and is in the NCAAs for the third time in four years as the United East Conference champion. The Lions downed St. Elizabeth University (N.J.) in the tournament finals 84-61 Saturday at home in Middletown, Pa. They are led by senior guard Donyae Baylor-Carroll at 19 points per game and senior guard Nate Curry at 9 rebounds per game. Two of their four losses this season are to ODAC teams. Penn State Harrisburg is an undergraduate college and graduate school of about 5,000 students about nine miles south of the state capital.

Hood College is 19-6 and finished second in the Middle Atlantic Conference Commonwealth this year. The MAC Commonwealth and Freedom combined for five bids to the NCAAs this year. The Blazers lost in the conference tournament semifinals to Eastern University (Pa.) 76-72 last Wednesday in Frederick, Md. They are led by junior guard Garrison Linton, who is averaging 12 points and 6 rebounds per game. Hood is an independent liberal arts college of about 2,000 students in Frederick.