BARBOURVILLE, Ky. – Union College will begin the 2008 Appalachian Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Tournament on Wednesday. The Bulldogs, the No. 7 seed, will play Covenant (Ga.) College, the No. 10 seed, at 6 p.m. The bracket was announced Sunday by the conference.

The four-day tournament will be contested at Viking Hall in Bristol, Tenn. The championship game is set for Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. The teams are competing for a bid to the NAIA Division II Men's Basketball National Tournament. The tournament champion will join King (Tenn.) College, the regular-season champion, in Point Lookout, Mo. for the 32-team national tournament.

The Bulldogs compiled an 8-10 conference record and they went 18-12 overall. They were in a tie for sixth place with UVa-Wise, but Wise owned the tie-breaker advantage over the Bulldogs.

The winner of the Union-Covenant game advances to play No. 2 seed Bluefield (Va.) College at 8:30 a.m. Thursday.

Union and Covenant split the season series, with each winning on their home floor. The Bulldogs got the first win on Dec. 4, a 76-69 victory. Covenant evened the series with a 71-67 decision Feb. 2 in Lookout Mountain, Ga. Covenant owned a 5-13 AAC record with an overall record of 9-21. The Scots enter the tournament on a four-game losing streak.

King went 16-2 in conference play for the regular-season crown. King’s first-round opponent on Thursday will be the winner between Virginia Intermont College and Bryan (Tenn.) College in the battle between the eight and ninth seeded teams Wednesday. Both Virginia Intermont and Bryan finished conference play with 5-13 records. King won last season's AAC Tournament crown with a 100-89 victory over Montreat (N.C.) College.

Four teams know who their first-round opponents will be come Thursday. Montreat and Tennessee Wesleyan Collegeare set tobattle between the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds at 5:15 p.m. Both teams went 9-9 in conference play. Milligan, the No. 3 seed, and UVa-Wise, the No. 6 seed, play a 10:15 a.m. contest. Milligan owned a 10-8 conference mark while UVa-Wise went 8-10.

The AAC semifinals are scheduled for 2 and 6 p.m. Friday.

The Bulldogs enter the postseason on a two-game losing streak. Union dropped a pair of road games at Bryan and UVa-Wise by the scores of 63-51 and 86-63, respectively.

Sophomore Aaron Dunaway (Lexington, Ky.) scored 15.6 points per game this season to lead the Bulldogs. Another sophomore, Huberts von Heyden (Neulengbach, Austria), has grabbed 4.20 rebounds per game for the most on the squad. Freshman Michael Hester (Independence, Ky.) has dished out a team-best 82 assists.

This will not be the first time Union has been on a neutral court this season. The Bulldogs have played five games on neutral courts this season, and they have won all five.

Union lost in the first round last year to Montreat, 87-70.

To view the complete bracket, click here
For AAC Tournament information, click here