The Southland had a cluster of teams near the top of the conference, with New Orleans, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Houston Baptist and 2016 champ Stephen F. Austin.
Southland basketball tournament 2017: Bracket, schedule, and scores
Top-seed New Orleans won in overtime to capture the conference tournament title.
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In the end, it was top seed New Orleans who prevailed, beating Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in overtime in the championship game.
After going 18-0 in conference play a year ago, Stephen F. Austin backslid this year, due in no small measure to the loss of senior forward Thomas Walkup from last season. His 18.1 points and 6.9 rebounds per game have been sorely missed this year, and the Lumberjacks’ 17-13 (12-6 Southland) record shows just how great a contributor he was. Remarkably, SFA’s scoring rate has taken such a hit that the Lumberjacks are 12th of 13 conference teams in points per game.
Back at the top of the conference standings in 2017 are Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Sam Houston State, the former of which lost to SFA in last year’s conference tournament final round. The Islanders don’t score at a high rate — ranking just seventh in the conference in points per game — but they play defense and boast the most steals in the Southland with 151 on the year. That’s also good for 15th best in the country.
Houston Baptist has been on a tear in the closing weeks of the regular season, racing through nine straight wins to wrap up the Southland Tournament’s No. 4 seed. In that time, the Huskies have posted scores of at least 80 in all but one contest, and 90 three times. Little surprise, then, that they own the best scoring average in the conference.
The format
Though the Southland comprises 13 teams in total, only the top eight in the regular season standings will make the journey to Katy. The Nos. 1 and 2 seeds earn automatic byes into the semifinal round, and the Nos. 3 and 4 seeds earn byes into the quarterfinal round.
The teams
- New Orleans
- Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
- Stephen F. Austin
- Houston Baptist
- Sam Houston State
- Lamar
- Southeastern Louisiana
- Central Arkansas
The bracket
Schedule and Results (All times Eastern)
Wednesday, March 8 (First Round)
Game 1: No. 5 Sam Houston State 77, No. 8 Central Arkansas 69
Game 2: No. 6 Lamar 77, No. 7 Southeastern Louisiana 65
Thursday, March 9 (Second Round)
Game 3: No. 5 Sam Houston State 63, No. 4 Houston Baptist 59
Game 4: No. 3 Stephen F. Austin 75, No. 6 Lamar 59
Friday, March 10 (Semifinals)
Game 5: No. 1 New Orleans 75, No. 5 Sam Houston State 63
Game 6: No. 2 A&M-Corpus Christi 77, No. 3 Stephen F. Austin 69
Saturday, March 11 (Finals)
Game 7: No. 1 New Orleans 68, No. 2 A&M-Corpus Christi 65
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