Men’s Southland Conference Tip-Off set to start Thursday

By Tyler Tyre, Sports Editor
Posted 1/4/22

The Men’s Southland tip-off is set to start Thursday, as the Southland teams prepare for conference play.

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Men’s Southland Conference Tip-Off set to start Thursday

Posted

The Men’s Southland tip-off is set to start Thursday, as the Southland teams prepare for conference play.

The event will start Thursday morning as Southwestern takes on Houston Baptist takes on Southwestern at 11 a.m. in the opener. New Orleans will take on McNeese in the second game of the day before Northwestern State and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi face off and the day will be capped off when Nicholls State takes on UIW at 7:30 p.m.

It will be a strong field as A&M Corpus Christi holds the best record heading into the tournament at 10-3, while Nichols has the second-best record at 8-6. Southeastern, New Orleans and Houston Baptist all have four wins on the season.

Nichols was the preseason favorite to win the conference and has one of the most electrifying players in the country in Ty Gordon. Gordon, a senior has already racked up the conference player of the week five times and is averaging 21 points per game while shooting over 50% from the field and 40% from the three-point line. He has 10 20-point games this year and is averaging 25.7 points per game over his past seven games. He is the No. 11 scorer in Division I.

A&M Corpus-Christi one of the surprises of the year and will try to prove that they are a contender to win the Southland this year and make it to the NCAA Tournament. The Islanders rank sixth in the nation in turnovers forced per game, are 11th in turnover margin and 13th in steals per game.

The Islanders lead the conference in scoring offense at 80.29 points per game, scoring margin with a plus 12.43 margin, and scoring defense, holding teams to just 67.86 points per game. The Islanders were the only Southland team to receive votes in the latest mid-major basketball poll

Isaac Mushila has been leading the way for A&M Corpus-Christi, averaging 14 points per game and 8.5 rebounds per game, he’s shooting over 70% from the field and 40% from the three-point line so far this year. He’s also won two conference player of the week awards so far.

After the first day of pool play, the teams will get split into a winners and losers bracket. The winners will go on to play Friday before the seventh place, fifth place, third place and first place games are played on Saturday.

All games will be played at the Merrell Center.

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