BASKETBALL: Cardinal men won’t go to postseason; women await WNIT announcement
Published 2:34 pm Monday, March 18, 2019
Despite earning 20 victories this season — one more than in each of the past two years — Lamar will not play in any men’s college basketball national tournament this year.
Lamar sports information director James Dixon confirmed the Cards’ season ended Thursday in the quarterfinal round of the Southland Conference tournament, a 76-72 loss to eventual runner-up New Orleans. Abilene Christian won both the men’s and women’s tournament championships and earned automatic berths in the NCAA tournament.
Dixon was unsure whether Lamar (20-13) had received an invitation to either the CollegeInsider.com Tournament or College Basketball Invitational and declined. Lamar appeared in the CollegeInsider.com tourney each of the past two years, losing to Texas State (2017) and UTSA (2018) in the first round.
Sam Houston State, the Southland men’s regular season champion, is seeded eighth in the TCU region of the National Invitation Tournament and will take on the Horned Frogs at 8 p.m. Wednesday in Fort Worth.
The Lamar women’s team is automatically in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament for the second year in a row by virtue of winning the Southland regular-season title. The Cardinal women (24-6) are awaiting to hear their matchup sometime tonight after the NCAA women’s tournament field is announced.
TCU beat Lamar in last year’s WNIT.
About I.C. Murrell
I.C. Murrell was promoted to editor of The News, effective Oct. 14, 2019. He previously served as sports editor since August 2015 and has won or shared eight first-place awards from state newspaper associations and corporations. He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, grew up mostly in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and graduated from the University of Arkansas at Monticello.
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