BEAUMONT, Texas – Winners of three consecutive and four of their last five, the Lamar University men's basketball team posted an impressive 12-point victory over No. 7-seed Southeastern Louisiana in the opening round of the Southland Conference Championships Wednesday evening. Its reward for picking up the victory, a showdown with the three-time defending tournament champion Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks in the second round.
 
SFA (17-13/12-6 SLC) received an opening-round bye after earning the league's No. 3 overall seed. While the Lumberjacks enter the postseason tournament having split its last four decisions, SFA has won six of its last eight games.
 
The Cardinals (19-13) trail the all-time series against the Lumberjacks, 25-33 (.431) and have lost the last nine meetings in the series, which includes a nine-point victory earlier this season in Nacogdoches. Despite their recent struggles in the series, the Cardinals have history on their side when it comes to SFA in conference tournament games. The Cards are 2-0 all-time against SFA in the conference tournament with the last meeting coming in the 2012 semifinals. The only other meeting between the two schools came during the 2001-02 season when LU outlasted the Lumberjacks in a defensive struggle, 53-36. That game was played in the Montagne Center.
 
LU has a lot on the line in Thursday's second-round contest. Not only are the Cards looking to keep their season alive, but they're are also looking to equal their longest win streak of the season, record win No.  20 (the benchmark of success in collegiate basketball) and advance to the conference semifinals for the 13^th time in program history. Should LU pick up its 20^th victory it would also be the 13^th time in Cardinals' history that it recorded 20 wins in a season.
 
The Cardinals current nine-game turnaround has to be a shock to the preseason pollsters. According to the prognosticators, LU's season should already be over. The Cardinals were picked 12^th of 13 teams in a two separate preseason polls.
 
Thursday's matchup will be the second game of the session and will tip off at 7:30 p.m. from the Merrell Center in Katy, Texas. The game can be heard live on Newstalk 560 KLVI, and seen live on ESPN3. Fans wishing to attend Thursday game can still purchase tickets through the LU ticket office. Single-game tickets and tournament books can be purchased by logging onto www.LamarCardinals.com, or by dialing (409) 880-1715.
 
-LU CARDINALS-