TAMPA, Fla.— The Southeastern Fire – regular-season champions of The Sun Conference thanks to a pair of head-to-head wins over Keiser – have earned the No. 1 seed and will play host to the semifinal round and championship game of this coming week’s six-team 2019-20 Men’s Basketball Championship Tournament in Lakeland, Fla.
No. 15-ranked Southeastern (21-8, 14-4) and No. 17-ranked Keiser (22-6, 14-4) each receive a first-round bye and will not play until the semifinals on Friday at “The Furnace” on Southeastern’s campus.
Tuesday’s first-round matchups find No. 3-seed St. Thomas (20-5, 13-5) playing host to No. 6-seed Webber International (15-14, 8-10) in Miami Gardens, Fla., and No. 4-seed Ave Maria (19-9, 13-5) entertaining No. 5-seed Warner (20-10, 9-9) in Ave Maria, Fla. Both of those games are slated for 7 p.m. tipoffs.
As noted earlier, Southeastern won the tiebreaker with Keiser and conference bylaws award the regular-season championship to a team that wins a tiebreaker based on head-to-head competition. St. Thomas, who received votes in the most recent NAIA Division II Coaches Poll, finished in a tie for third with Ave Maria but earned the No. 3 seed when records against league opponents in descending order came into play (St. Thomas split with second-place Keiser while Ave Maria lost both games with the Seahawks).
The WIU-STU winner will advance to a Friday semifinal game with Keiser at “The Furnace” on Southeastern’s campus in Lakeland. The winner of the WU-AMU quarterfinal game will play the host Fire on Friday. The Friday games will be part of a full day of basketball at “The Furnace” as the Southeastern women’s team also secured the No. 1 seed and will be playing host to The Sun Conference Women’s Basketball Championship tournament as well. Tipoff times for the four games have not yet been finalized.
Saturday’s championship game for the men is tentatively scheduled to tip at 7 p.m.
With the regular-season conference championship in hand, Southeastern has already claimed one of the two automatic berths that The Sun has to the NAIA Division II Championship tournament in Sioux Falls, S.D. (March 11-17). The second berth goes to the winner of the conference tournament. If Southeastern also wins the tournament, the spot goes to the second-place team in the regular season which would be Keiser. Other Sun teams could possibly be in consideration for at-large bids to the tourney field.
Ave Maria is the defending champion of The Sun Conference Tournament as the Gyrenes defeated Coastal Georgia, 83-67, in the 2019 tourney finale.