For the first time in Hope International University history, our men’s and women’s basketball teams will both be competing for the GSAC Championship. The Royals will both play for the title at Vanguard University, Tuesday night. The women will face The Master’s College at 5 p.m. and then the men’s team takes on Vanguard at 8 p.m.

HIU women’s basketball enters the GSAC finals on the heels of their first ever win against NAIA No. 1 Vanguard. The No. 17 Royals handed the top ranked Lions their only loss of the season when they came out ahead 80-76 last Friday. The win put HIU at 22 wins for the season, an all-time high. As for the Royals’ opponent in the championship game, No. 7 Master’s leads the series 2-0 for this season.

With their win on Friday, women’s basketball became the first HIU team in any sport to qualify for a GSAC championship. However, men’s basketball quickly followed suit with a 61-56 win against Master’s last Saturday. The third-seeded Royals (NAIA No. 23) will look to continue their 8 game win streak against top seed, NAIA No. 9 Vanguard. The teams are even against one another this season, with HIU scoring their win just two and a half weeks ago.

Both the women’s and men’s GSAC championship games will be televised by FOX Sports Prime Ticket and FOX College Sports. Tickets are $15 for reserved seating and $10 for general admission and can be purchased from HIU in advance by calling Megan Austin at (714) 879-3901 ext. 2642.  The women will kick the evening off at 5 p.m. and the men’s game will follow at 8 p.m. at Vanguard University in Costa Mesa.