EDWARDSVILLE — The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville men's basketball team will travel to Central Arkansas to face the Bears in Ramada Worldwide BracketBusters as announced Tuesday by ESPN.
The Cougars join the 11 other Ohio Valley Conference schools in the 11th annual event. The game is slated for 4:30 p.m. matchup Feb. 23 in Conway, Ark.
"BracketBusters is a great opportunity to see a school outside of our conference," SIUE coach Lennox Forrester said.
Central Arkansas, a member of the Southland Conference, is 9-11 overall this season and 4-6 in conference play. The Bears have five games scheduled prior to the BracketBusters game. UCA has faced three other OVC schools previously this season and is 3-0 in those games. The Bears have wins against Eastern Illinois, Tennessee-Martin and Southeast Missouri.
This is the third time SIUE has been included in the Ramada Worldwide BracketBusters field. The Cougars played Cal State Fullerton during its first BracketBusters appearance in 2010.
Last season the Cougars defeated Northern Illinois at SIUE in the event.
The Cougars currently are 8-11 overall and also have five games prior to the meeting with Central Arkansas. SIUE and Central Arkansas have met only once, with the Cougars falling to the Bears in the 1993 season, when both schools were Division II members.
Central Arkansas will make a return to SIUE as early as next season.
The rest of the OVC schedule of games is listed below:
* Eastern Kentucky at Valparaiso (noon ESPNU)
* South Dakota State at Murray State (7 p.m. ESPN 2)
* Ohio at Belmont (9 p.m. ESPN 2)
* Austin Peay at Liberty
* Eastern Illinois at Northern Illinois
* Jacksonville State at UNC Asheville
* Morehead State at Oakland
* Ball State at Southeast Missouri
* Loyola (Md.) at Tennessee State
* UMKC at Tennessee Tech
* Longwood at UT Martin
