Big South basketball tournament schedule and bracket: Semifinals action begins Saturday

The Big South Conference Tournament has reached the semifinals portion of play. With four quality teams still in the hunt for the automatic NCAA Tournament bid up for grabs, the fans should be in for a great day of action.

The higher-seeded teams have won throughout most of the tournament with the lone exception being Liberty. In the quarterfinals, No. 5 seed Liberty defeated top-seed High Point in thrilling fashion, picking up the 61-60 win. That now sets up a semifinals game meeting with No. 2 Gardner Webb at 2 p.m. ET on Saturday.

The other semifinals game will pit the Big South's other No. 1 seed, Charleston Southern, against No. 2 seed Virginia Military Institute. According to Kenpom's efficiency rankings, Charleston is the best team in the conference, ranking 171st nationally. VMI does not fare as well in the computer rankings, although they are a program with a history for pulling off upsets in March. Tipoff is set for noon.

Fans can catch both semifinals games streamed live through ESPN3. The championship game will be televised live by ESPN2 on Sunday. The full tournament bracket can be found here.

Semifinals - March 9

12 p.m.: No. 1 Charleston Southern vs. No. 2 Liberty
2 p.m.: No. 2 Gardner-Webb vs. No. 5 Liberty

Championship - March 10

12 p.m.: Semifinals Winners

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