Southern (17-10, 11-7 MIAA) secures the fourth seed in the 2008 MIAA Basketball tournament with the win and a Fort Hays loss to Northwest Missouri tonight. The Lions will play the Tigers in the first round on March 7 at 2:15 pm.

Western (9-18, 3-15 MIAA) misses the MIAA Tournament for the second straight season.

The Lions trailed at the half, 32-28, but stormed out of the locker room and started the second half on a 10-5 run to go up 38-35 on a layup from Tony Webb. The game was tied at 46 after a dunk from Western's Reggie Bunch, but Bunch hung on the rim and was called for a technical foul. Western coach Tom Smith was then called for a technical of his own for arguing the call.

Skyler Bowlin made three of the four freebies to go up three and that started what would be a 15-3 run to put the Lions up by 12 (61-49) after a dunk from Britton with 12:13 left. Southern scored just 28 points in the first half, but through the first 12 minutes of the second half, the Lions offense racked up 47 points en route to 59 in the half.

Western wouldn't be slowed though. The Griffons scored 48 points of their own in the second half  and pulled to within six late, but wouldn't get any closer.

Britton led four players in double-figures for the Lions. Webb scored 18, while Bowlin added 15 and dished out a career high seven assists, including five steals. Octavius Hawkins scored 13, while Tyler Ryerson dished out eight assists.

The Lions will now face off with Fort Hays State in the 2:15 pm game on Friday, March 7. Southwest Baptist is the No. 1 seed and will play No. 8 Emporia State, while Northwest Missouri, the No. 2 seed, faces off with No. 7 seed Pittsburg State. Central Missouri is the No. 3 seed and will take on fifth seed Washburn.