Men's Basketball Battles Shreveport in RRAC Tournament

SAN ANTONIO (Feb. 29, 2024) – The Our Lady of the Lake University (OLLU) men's basketball team starts the Red River Athletic Conference (RRAC) Championship Tournament tomorrow as the No. 5 seed. The Saints finished the regular season at 14-14 overall and 11-11 in the RRAC.

The Saints shined at home while struggling on the road. They went 10-4 at Mabee Gymnasium and 4-8 away from San Antonio. Highlights throughout the season included scoring 103 points against the University of the Southwest during a four-game winning streak. The Saints swept the season series against Huston-Tillotson University and Paul Quinn College (PQC).

The RRAC Championship Tournament has eight teams. LSU-Alexandria (LSUA) will be the No. 1 seed after going 19-3 in conference play. Texas College (TC) is the No. 2 seed followed by Xavier University of Louisiana (XULA) at third. Both squads finished at 17-5 with the Steers holding the tiebreaker. LSU-Shreveport (LSUS) is in the fourth spot at 16-6 and faces No. 5-seeded OLLU. The University of the Southwest (USW) is the sixth seed at 10-12, followed by No. 7-seeded Jarvis Christian University (JCU) in seventh at 10-12 and PQC in eighth at 7-15.

The tournament is being hosted by LSUA at the Rapides Coliseum in Alexandria, La. The quarterfinals begin tomorrow with the following schedule:

No. 4-seed LSUS vs. No. 5-seed OLLU (3 p.m.)

No. 3-seed XULA vs. No. 6-seed USW (4:45 p.m.)

No. 2-seed TC vs. No. 7-seed JCU (6:30 p.m.)

No. 1-seed LSUA vs. No. 8-seed PQC (8:15 p.m.)

The semifinals consist of the winner of game two versus the winner of game three. The second matchup is the victors of game one and game four. The contests will be played on Saturday, with the championship game on Sunday. 

The Saints split the season series with the Pilots. LSUS won the first matchup in San Antonio 108-99 in December. OLLU responded in February with a 90-86 victory in Shreveport, La. The Pilots are led by Calvin Carpenter with 12.5 points per game. LSUS averages 10.4 offensive rebounds per game and Paul King ha a team-high 78 assists.

Breion Powell, Lonzo Rand, Trey Law, Rob Gil and Daniel Helterhoff are all averaging double-digit points per contest. Helterhoff has a team-high 5.9 rebounds pe game. Gil averages just under five assists per game. The Saints have won five of the last seven games heading into Friday.