Men’s Basketball Aims for High TSC Tournament Seed

LAKELAND, Fla.— Following a pair of home losses, the Fire will close out their regular season with a couple of key conference matchups this week. Southeastern hosts Florida Memorial in the Furnace on Thursday and travels to St. Thomas for the final regular season game on Saturday.
 
If the Fire win both contests, they will lock down the second seed in the Sun Conference Tournament; however, if they drop the two games, the team could fall to as low as the fifth seed.
 
GAME INFO:
#20 Southeastern (18-8, 11-5 TSC) vs Florida Memorial University (4-21, 3-13 TSC)
Date: Thursday February 14, 2019
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: The Furnace- Lakeland, Fla.
 
COVERAGE:

• Watch all Fire men's basketball home games online at seufire.com/watch or keep up with in-game updates by following @SEUFireMBB on Twitter.

 
The Fire:

• SEU comes into the matchup with Florida Memorial looking for a confidence boost. Southeastern has dropped four of its last five competitions by a combined 11 points.  
• The team is shooting well, knocking down 49.0% of their shots from the field and 37.3% of shots from three, which rank 16^th and 41^st in the nation, respectively.
• Despite the squad's recent struggles, Ismael Celestin has been playing solid basketball. The senior is averaging 16 points over his last three games, while shooting 43.2% from the field. Celestin assisted on ten buckets during the three-game span, bumping his season average to a team-high 3.1 helpers per game.

 
Free Throw Frenzy:

• The Fire are the third-best free throw shooting team in the nation at 79.5%, the program's highest free throw percentage since joining the NAIA in 2009.
• Celestin, who ranks sixth in the country in free throw percentage (87.4%), has made his last 20 attempts from the charity stripe.
• Josiah Barsh ranks ninth in free throw shooting (86.3%) and Jeremy Oppenheimer is currently 15^th (85.1%).

 
The Lions:

• Florida Memorial has dropped 14 of its last 16 matchups, but has notched two conference triumphs in its past six games.
• Despite the 4-21 record, the Lions seem to spread the ball around effectively as five players average at least double-digits in scoring.
• Florida Memorial ranks 22^nd in offensive rebounding in the NAIA, collecting 12.2 offensive boards per competition. Nehemiah Darrett leads the charge on the offensive glass, ranking 50^th in the category by averaging 2.4 per game.

 
All-Time Series:

• Southeastern has an 11-7 record all-time against Florida Memorial and has outscored the Lions 1,449-1,332 (80.5 ppg – 78.4 ppg) in the 18 games.
• The Fire defeated Florida Memorial on the road earlier this year by a score of 95-84, the largest margin of victory by either team in the series since the 2014-15 season.

 
GAME INFO:
#20 Southeastern (18-8, 11-5 TSC) at St. Thomas University (11-13, 10-6 TSC)
Date: Saturday February 16, 2019
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Location: Miami Gardens, Fla.
 
The Bobcats:

• St. Thomas will host Southeastern currently on a four-game win streak, with all four victories coming against conference opponents. The span included a 73-70 upset over no. 16 Warner.
• The Bobcats have a strict scoring defense, allowing the third-fewest points per game among Sun Conference squads (73.1 ppg) which also ranks 26^th in the country.
• STU does a phenomenal job at gaining extra possessions as the team is 25^th in the NAIA in steals per game (7.7) and 48^th in turnover margin (0.7). Individually, Philip Saunders leads the Bobcats with 1.9 steals per contest (24^th).

 
All-Time Series:

• Southeastern has only captured seven of the 22 meetings between the two schools since 2008, but the Fire have won the last two.
• In games that have been played in Miami in the series, SEU is 3-6 and has been victorious in three of the last five.