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Islanders’ men need a win to guarantee a shot at the Southland post-season tournament

Posted at 7:02 PM, Mar 08, 2019
and last updated 2019-03-08 20:17:16-05

The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi men’s basketball teams will play its 31st and final regular season game of the year on Saturday.

And it will be the Islanders’ most important game of the year to date.

Here’s why.

The Islanders (13-17, 8-9 in Southland Conference play) host Houston Baptist (12-16, 8-9) on Senior Day at the American Bank Center. And right now, they are currently tied with HBU for sixth place in the Southland Conference.

Only the top eight teams make it to the conference post-season tournament.

A win guarantees the Isles a spot in the tournament.

But a loss will complicate matters. Let’s just hope the Isles take care of business and get the “W.”

“This is a big game,” A&M-Corpus Christi coach Willis Wilson said. “No question is going to be a huge game between us and HBU.

“We find ourselves deadlocked and it was an incredibly close game on the road at HBU 10 games ago so I think both teams will come out in a highly contested contest.”

The Huskies claim the first meeting between the two teams on Feb. 2, 73-72.

Wilson expects his team will ready for the challenge, especially because they are playing at home.

“Well, you never like it coming down to the wire, but you do like the situation where you can control your own destiny and that’s exactly where we find ourselves,” Wilson said. “The other good news is we are home for this last contest.”

Playing at home could make a big difference on Saturday. The Islanders are 8-7 at home this year.

The game will be at 5 p.m. Saturday and be shown on KZTV.

Before that game, the Islanders’ women (14-14, 8-9) will finish their home season as well against Houston Baptist (8-19, 3-14).

For the Islanders’ women , the situation is much simpler.

They have already nailed down the No. 6 seed. They already know they will meet New Orleans at 1 p.m. Thursday at the conference tournament in Katy.

The women’s game will be shown at 2:30 p.m. Saturday on KDF-TV.