LAKE CHARLES, La. – The Southeastern Louisiana University men's basketball team begins its quest for a championship on Monday night as the Lions begin play in the 2023 Jersey Mike's Southland Conference Basketball Championships presented by LouisianaTravel.com at the Legacy Center in Lake Charles.
 
Southeastern (18-13) enters the tournament as the three-seed, riding the high of a season long-tying four game win streak which ended the regular season as the Lions finished its season schedule with an 80-64 road win over Houston Christian.
 
The Lions finished the 2022-23 season with a 12-6 record in Southland Conference play, the most in-conference wins SLU has put together since 2018-19 under Jay Ladner, a team that also finished the year 12-6 and went on to advance to the conference tournament semifinals before falling to eventual tournament champion Abilene Christian.
 
For his efforts on the season, Boogie Anderson was named an All-Conference First Team member. He's led Southeastern all season in scoring average, assist average, and steals average all season long. He scored 14.1 points per game during the regular season on 49.3% shooting, had 4.4 assists per contest, and picked up 1.2 steals a game. He hit two buzzer-beating shots which gave SLU wins on the season, the first capping the largest five-minute comeback in NCAA history as the Lions overcame a 20-point deficit with 4:58 remaining with his shot providing the winning points to beat Campbell 70-69. The other coming at Texas A&M-Commerce as his floater at the horn in overtime capped a 78-76 win where he picked up an assist from the backcourt on a three by Matthew Strange at the buzzer which forced the extra period.
 
Roger McFarlane scores 12.4 points per game on the season on 44.2% shooting and 40.9% from three while leading SLU in rebounding at 8.1 boards per game. Nick Caldwell scored 11 points per contest and grabs 5.3 rebounds a game while leading Southeastern in blocked shots at 0.7 a contest.
 
Southeastern found out its quarterfinal opponent on Sunday night as the seven-seed New Orleans knocked off the six-seed Houston Christian, 90-69, in a first round contest. The Lions swept the Privateers (11-19) by taking both games of the home-an-home series over the span of three days back in late January, wins that were a part of one of the three four-game win streaks for SLU during the season while UNO was mired in what would eventually become a nine-game losing streak. However, the Privateers seem to be playing their best ball at the right time, having won five of their last six contests including a road win at Northwestern State and home win over Nicholls State, two teams that received at least one bye in the tournament, and includes their first round win over HCU.
 
Tip-off of Monday's quarterfinal contest between the Lions and Privateers is set for 7:30 p.m. at the Legacy Center in Lake Charles. The winner of the UNO/SLU game moves on to Tuesday's semifinal contest against Northwestern State at 8:00 p.m. with the Championship Game taking place at 4:00 p.m. Wednesday. All games of the Southland Conference Tournament will be live streamed on ESPN+.
 
HARDWOOD CLUB/S CLUB
Fans interested in becoming active supporters of the basketball program are encouraged to join the Hardwood Club.  Lion alums are encouraged to join the exclusive S Club, which is restricted to Southeastern athletic letterwinners.  All membership fees and donations to Hardwood Club are available for the exclusive use of the Southeastern basketball program. Membership information is available by contacting the Lion Athletics Association at laa@southeastern.edu or (985) 549-5091 or visiting www.LionUp.com.
 
SOCIAL MEDIA
For more information on Southeastern Basketball, follow @LionUpMBB and @DavidKieferSLU on Twitter, like /SLUathletics on Facebook and subscribe to the SLUathletics YouTube channel.
 
TICKETS
For ticket information, please contact the Southeastern Athletics Ticket Office at (985) 549-5466 or visit www.LionSports.net/tickets. Southeastern is implementing mobile ticketing as the primary source for securing tickets. All tickets will be available via e-mail in a PDF format for fans to download on their phone or print at home. Tickets can also be downloaded to Apple Wallet.