SLC Announces Tourney Bracket
3/8/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 8, 2009
NACOGDOCHES, Texas -
2009 State Farm SLC Tournament Bracket
The Southland Conference has released the bracket for the 2009 State Farm Southland Conference Basketball Tournament, to be held at the Merrell Center in Katy, Texas. The Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks go in as the No. 1 seed and will play in the primetime slots in the two rounds leading up to Sunday's championship game.
SFA will take on No. 8 Southeastern Louisiana Thursday at 6 p.m. A win would move the Lumberjacks into the semifinals on Friday against the winner of Thursday's late game between No. 4 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and No. 5 UT-Arlington. Friday's semifinal game is scheduled to start at 8:30 p.m. and will be broadcast on the Southland Television Network and ESPN Full Court, via ESPN360.com.
The winner of Friday night's game will advance to the championship game on Sunday. That contest is scheduled for a noon start and will be broadcast nationally on ESPN2 with the winner earning the SLC's automatic bid to the NCAA Championships.
The other half of the bracket features first-round games between No. 2 Nicholls State and No. 7 Texas State, as well as No. 3 Sam Houston State and No. 6 UTSA.
All tournament games, with the exception of the championship contest, will be streamed live on www.southland.org.
The Lumberjacks earned the tournament's top seed by posting a 13-3 record in SLC play, marking the program's first back-to-back conference championship performance since the early 1980s. By virtue of its No. 1 seeding, SFA (21-7) is assured of at least a bid to the National Invitation Tournament, if the `Jacks fail to make the NCAA Championships.
-- SFA --
