Carnegie Mellon's Tony Wingen is hoping the best is still to come for his Tartans, who will make their first appearance in the NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament since 1977.

	TOURNAMENT TRAIL NCAA Division III tournament games for area colleges Men First round Carnegie Mellon (20-5) vs. Baldwin-Wallace (24-4), 6 p.m. Friday, Wittenberg University, Ohio. Bethany (23-4) vs. Transylvania (24-4), 8 p.m., Friday, Lexington, Ky. Women First round Washington & Jefferson (22-4) vs. Medaille (25-1), 7:30 p.m. Friday, University of Rochester, N.Y.

"There's no happy-to-be-there attitude about this at all," said Wingen, who is in his 16th season as head coach. "We're going into this to win. I think we're talented enough and deep enough to play with anybody in the country."

Carnegie Mellon (20-5), which has set a school record for wins in a season and won its first University Athletic Association championship, is ranked No. 24 and will meet seventh-ranked Baldwin-Wallace (24-4) in the first round of the tournament 6 p.m. Friday at Wittenberg University in Ohio.

No. 6 Wittenberg (25-3) will play Lake Erie (21-6), the champion of the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference, in the first round. Lake Erie defeated Pitt-Greensburg, 83-82, in overtime in the conference championship game to earn the automatic bid.

The winners will meet Saturday in the second round.

"It's a pretty tough bracket," Wingen said. "We have a veteran team. We'll be fine."

Carnegie Mellon's top scorers are 6-foot-6 Nate Maurer (18.7 points per game), 6-4 Clayton Barlow-Wilcox (15.8 ppg, 8.6 rebounds per game) and 6-4 Marques Johnson (12.3 ppg, 5.0 rpg). All are seniors.

Baldwin-Wallace, whose 87.9 points per game average was buoyed by a 133-113 victory against Westminster, features 6-3 Tori Davis (23.3 ppg, 8.6 rpg) and 6-1 Keith Aufmuth (13.6 ppg, 59 3-pointers).

"We're going to both run and play up-tempo and see what happens," Wingen said. "We led our conference in rebounding and they led their conference. It should be a good matchup of strengths."

Other games

Bethany (23-4) vs. Transylvania (24-4), 8 p.m., Lexington, Ky.

Bethany, champion of the Presidents' Athletic Conference and winner of 17 in a row, is making consecutive appearances in the tournament for the first time.

"We've had to truly earn our bids," coach Aaron Huffman said. "Since the PAC doesn't have an automatic bid, we've had to get there the hard way by convincing an unbiased national committee that we should be selected among the nation's elite teams."

Bethany lost to John Carroll, 76-48, in the first round last season.

The Bison boast 6-6 Matt Drahos (23.5 ppg, 8.4 rpg, 1.7 blocks per game), one of 10 finalists for the Jostens Trophy awarded to the Division III men's player of the year. He is the school's second all-time scorer and all-time rebound leader.

Transylvania, champion of the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference, has a balanced offense led by 6-2 Bryan Howard (12.8 ppg) and 6-5 Matt Finke (12.8 ppg).

The winner will meet the Wooster (25-3)-Randolph-Macon (22-6) winner Saturday.

W&J (22-4) vs. Medaille (25-1), 7:30 p.m., Rochester (N.Y.) University

Washington & Jefferson, winner of six consecutive games and the PAC women's champion, is led by three-time All-America senior Leigh Sulkowski, the player of the year in the PAC and the third-leading scorer in the country at 23.1 points per game. An Upper St. Clair High graduate, Sulkowski is the school's all-time scorer and one of 10 finalists for the Jostens Trophy awarded to the Division III woman's player of the year.

Medaille, in Buffalo, is the champion of the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference and has a 17-game win streak. The Mavericks feature forward Amanda Baker (15.6 ppg, 10.5 rpg).

The winner will meet the Rochester (18-7)-Cortland State (23-4) winner Saturday in the second round.