The men’s basketball championship tournament is set after a wild final night in the Southland Conference Monday.

It will open Sunday night in the Legacy Center, where McNeese State will host in hopes of claiming its second straight title and a trip to the NCAA Tournament. If the Cowboys can do it, that would be the first time in program history that McNeese has accomplished this move.

The Cowboys beat Stephen F. Austin 95-65 to finish the regular season 25-6, 19-1, five games ahead of the field. While the group was set heading into Monday’s games, the seeding was up for grabs. 

“It’s on to the tournament,” McNeese head coach Will Wade said. “We have to raise our level of play.”

Only McNeese earned its spot, the top seed with the double-bye. The Cowboys will play next Tuesday at 6 p.m.

The fun began after that. Lamar wrapped up the No. 2 seed and second double-bye by beating Nicholls at home, 65-53. The Cardinals (19-12, 14-6) will begin tourney play Tuesday in the second game after McNeese.

“We capable of winning the tournament and we’re capable of beating (McNeese),” Lamar head coach Alvin Brooks said. “Now, we just have to go out and prove it.”

Nicholls, the only team to defeat McNeese this season, is the No. 3 seed and will play Monday against the winner of No. 5 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and No. 8 Houston Christian. Corpus tied for fourth with No. 4 Northwestern State and No. 6 Southeastern at 12-8 in league play but is fifth thanks to tiebreakers.

Houston Christian was tied with Incarnate Word for seventh but also lost the tiebreaker to UIW, which earned the seventh seed. Northwestern State gets the single bye and will play Monday in the first men’s game against the Corpus-HCU winner.