April 4, 2015

ST. LOUIS – The Midwest Professional Basketball Association will crown its first-ever champion after a two-round playoff series to be completed on Friday, April 10, at U.S. Cellular Coliseum in Bloomington, Illinois.

                    Two semi-final games will be played on Thursday at U.S. Cellular Coliseum to determine who plays in the final on Friday.  Final seedings will be determined by the outcome of the league’s final regular-season game Tuesday between the St. Louis RiverSharks and the Gateway Steam. 

                    If the RiverSharks win, they will be the number one seed, the Bloomington Flex will be second, the Champaign Swarm will be third, and the Steam will be fourth.  If the Steam win, Bloomington would finish first and the RiverSharks would be second.  The bottom two seeds would be unchanged.

                    “We’re excited that we’ve had a fantastic regular season, one in which every team was alive for playoff contention until the final week of the season,” said MPBA Commissioner Ed Schumer.  “I have no doubt the playoffs will be equally as exciting.  As our regular season has shown, any team can beat any other team on any given night—and with a Final Four-style playoff, that will amp up the thrills even more,” Schumer said.

                    Thursday’s first semi-final game will take place at 5:05 p.m. CDT, while the second semi-final is scheduled for not earlier than 8:05 p.m. CDT.  Friday’s final is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. CDT.  Tickets will be available beginning Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. online at www.uscellularcoliseum.com, or by calling the Coliseum box office at (309) 434-2679, or by calling Ticketmaster toll free at (800) 745-3000.

                    Both semi-finals and the final will be streamed in high definition, live and free of charge on the MPBA website, www.theMPBA.com.