Sam Houston will be the number three seed at the 2016 Southland Conference men's basketball tournament at the Leonard E. Merrell Center in Katy, Texas March 9-12.
The Bearkats will take a 17-14 overall record into the tournament after completing the regular season with an 85-64 loss to regular season champion Stephen F. Austin Saturday night before 2,091 fans at Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum.
Jovante' Spivey and Dakarai Henderson led the Bearkats with 15 and 11 points respectively.
This year's third place finish marks the ninth time in the last 11 years that Sam Houston has finished as one of the top four men's teams in the Southland Conference.
The Kats earned a bye in the first round with their third place finish. Sam Houston will take on the winner of Wednesday's first round game between McNeese State and Nicholls at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday.
SFA is the No. 1 seed.In the Jacks' half of the bracket are No. 4 seed Houston Baptist, No. 5 seed Southeastern Louisiana and No. 8 seed New Orleans. The Lions and Privateers will open the tournament Wednesday at 5 p.m.
The winner of the Southeastern-UNO game will play No. 4 seed Houston Baptist Thursday at 5 p.m.
On the other side of the bracket, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi locked up the No. 2 seed after finishing 15-3 in league play and 24-6 overall in the regular season. The Islanders, like SFA, has a double bye into semifinals and will play its first game Friday at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN3.
The first game on the Islanders' side of the bracket pits No. 6 seed McNeese State and No. 7 seed Nicholls. McNeese set for Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
No. 3 seed Sam Houston State awaits the winner of the McNeese-Nicholls game for a second-round game Thursday at 7:30 p.m. The Bearkats are in the tournament for the 19th time and for the 13th consecutive year. The Bearkats reached the championship game the last two seasons and are looking for their third tournament title and first since 2010.
For the first time, all rounds of the men's tournament will be televised. The first and second rounds along with the semifinals will be available solely on ESPN3, while the championship game will be covered exclusively ESPN2 and WatchESPN.
The winner of the tournament will receive the Southland's automatic bid into the NCAA tournament. The selection show is Sunday, March 13 at 4:30 p.m., CT, on CBS.
Tickets to the 2016 Southland Conference Basketball Tournament are available through Ticketmaster and at the Merrell Center box office Tuesday at 10 a.m. This is the ninth consecutive year for the event to be played in Katy.
