HAMMOND, La. – The Southeastern Louisiana University men's basketball team is heading to Lake Charles for the 2024 Jersey Mike's Southland Conference Basketball Championships presented by Explore Louisiana, which starts on Sunday as the fifth-seeded Lions take on the eight-seed New Orleans, looking to become the first team to win four games in four days to take the tournament title.
 
The opening game of the championships, featuring the five-seed Southeastern (15-16) and eight-seed New Orleans (9-22), is set for 5 p.m. Sunday from the Legacy Center on the campus of McNeese State University. Sunday's first round game will be live streamed on ESPN+ while a radio broadcast will be available, thanks to the Southeastern Sports Radio Network, on 90.9 FM The Lion in the Hammond/Ponchatoula area and worldwide on LionSports.net/ListenLive or LionUpRadio.org, or you can listen to the game on smart devices through the Lions Gameday Experience app, the TuneIn Radio app, or the MyTuner Radio app. Live stats will also be available through the Southland Conference. The winner of the game between the Lions and Privateers moves on to Monday's quarterfinal round against the fourth-seeded Lamar Cardinals.
 
Southeastern will be looking to continue the momentum built through the back end of the conference schedule, having won nine of the team's last 13 games, though the Lions are trying to get past a tough ending to the season after its regular season finale ended with an 80-54 loss to Nicholls Thursday on senior day inside the Pride Roofing University Center.
 
SLU is led by All-Conference First Team member Nick Caldwell, who finished the regular season averaging 15.5 points per game on 53.2% shooting, including 42.3% on three-point shots. He also leads the team in blocks at 0.9 a game while grabbing 5.5 rebounds a contest as well. Caldwell ended the regular season of his senior campaign with 152 games played while wearing the green and gold, breaking the old SLU career record for games played by 20 games, and growing.
 
Roger McFarlane also earned All-Conference honors for his play this season as he saw he was voted to the Second Team in the postseason awards on Saturday. He finished the season averaging 14.7 points per game on 41.3% shooting and 33.9% from beyond the arc on the season. He led the team in rebounds for the year, grabbing 8.6 boards a contest, leading him to a team-high 10 points-rebounds double-doubles on the season.
 
Roscoe Eastmond ended the season as the best distributor by far in the Southland, averaging 6.5 assists per game. He surpassed 500 career assists while playing Division I basketball earlier this season while also becoming just the second SLU player to pass 200 assists in a season, currently sitting at 201. He starts the SLC Championships just six assists short of Marlain Veal's SLU single season record of 207 assists from the 2017-18 season.
 
For the Lions to achieve that four-game-in-four-day feat, SLU must first beat a team which has become a common postseason foe in New Orleans as the Lions and Privateers are matching up in the Southland Conference Championships for the fourth-straight season and fifth time overall with the two teams having split the previous four postseason match-ups.
 
UNO started its SLC schedule quickly, winning two of its first three games. Its one loss in the run came to the Lions, however, that span included a home victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. That momentum has since evaporated for the Privateers, however, as UNO has lost 13 of its final 15 games, including a second loss to Southeastern as SLU swept the regular season series from New Orleans for the second straight season. Southeastern will be looking to avoid a similar fate as what happened at the end of 2022-23 where SLU saw its season end at the hands of the Privateers in the tournament after taking both games against UNO in the regular season.
 
Jordan Johnson, who was named All-Southland Conference Second Team, does it all for the Privateers, leading his team in points, assists, and steals as he averages 21.4 points, 3.9 assists, and 1.5 steals on the year. His best showing of the season came in that upset win over the Islanders where he scored 40 points to go with seven rebounds and three assists. He hits 38.3% of his shots overall and 33.9% from beyond the arc on the year.
 
Khaleb Wilson-Rouse, who did not play in UNO's season finale against McNeese on Wednesday night, averages 10.4 points per game on the year while connecting on 40.7% of his shots and 34.6% from three on the year.
 
UNO's top rebounding are Jamond Vincent and Tyson Jackson, who averaging 5.9 and 5.7 rebounds a game, respectively, while Vincent also leads the team in blocked shots at 0.7 rejections per game.
 
The winner between UNO and SLU advances to Monday's 5 p.m. quarterfinal round game against the four-seed, Lamar Cardinals. The winner of that game heads to the semifinal round on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. where the top-seed McNeese Cowboys await to see who will move on to Wednesday's Championship Game at 4 p.m. against the remaining team from the other side of the bracket which includes the six-seed, Northwestern State, seven-seed, Texas A&M-Commerce, three-seed, Nicholls, and two-seed, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The first round and quarterfinal round games will be exclusively televised on ESPN+. Tuesday's semifinal game from SLU's side of the bracket will be on ESPNU with the other semifinal game back on ESPN+. The SLC Tournament Championship Game on Wednesday will be televised on ESPN2.
 
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.