BREVARD, N.C. - Head coach Lee Burgess has released Brevard's 2015-2016 men's basketball schedule, which includes 28 regular season contests and two exhibition games, including a high-profile contest at Auburn on Oct. 30.
The Tornados will begin the season at Auburn Arena against the Bruce Pearl-led Tigers. Pearl has faced the Tornados on the hardwood once before as the head coach at Tennessee, when his Volunteers defeated defending South Atlantic Conference champion Brevard 91-42 in November of 2010.
"The Auburn game is something our guys are definitely looking forward to," said Burgess. "We have a chance to play an SEC team in a beautiful facility and that's something not every team at our level gets to do. We're definitely going to take it seriously and use that game to prepare ourselves for the rest of the season."
Brevard will face UNC Asheville in a second exhibition contest on November 7, a team the Tornados have twice defeated in exhibition games, before opening up regular season play against Lander and Southern Wesleyan. Both games will be played in Jefferson City, Tennessee, with the Tornados squaring off against the Bearcats on Friday, Nov. 13 before facing the Warriors a day later.
"We'll open up the season with a Peach Belt Conference team in Lander and then turn around the next day to play Southern Wesleyan," Burgess added. "We've got three other tough nonconference games on the road and a home opponent in Lees-McRae where our games have come down to the wire each of the last three times we've played them."
The Lees-McRae contest will take place on Sunday, Nov. 29, and is Brevard's home opener. The Bobcats will be looking to avenge a 76-70 loss to Brevard in Banner Elk last season. The Tornados will play their first conference home game on Saturday, Dec. 5 against Lenoir-Rhyne and welcome perennial NCAA Tournament participant Lincoln Memorial to Boshamer Gymnasium on Monday, Dec. 14 at 4:00 p.m.
Brevard will play a total of 22 SAC contests with a home-and-home scheduling format against all 11 league opponents. The league opener is slated for Tuesday, Nov. 24 at Tusculum. "Our schedule is definitely challenging, as it is every year," Burgess remarked. "I think our league is going to be very good. There's a lot of firepower coming back around the conference, so I expect the SAC to be a little tougher than it was last year."
Three of the Tornados' final four games will all take place in Brevard as the Tornados close the schedule by hosting Anderson and traveling to Catawba before home games against Carson-Newman and Newberry to end the season. Brevard will be aiming for its second conference tournament berth in as many years, with the semifinals and finals again scheduled to take place at Furman University's Timmons Arena in Greenville, South Carolina.
The Tornados will also face off with Pfeiffer, North Georgia, and eight-time national champion Kentucky Wesleyan in road nonconference matchups.
2015-2016 Brevard Men's Basketball Schedule
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