After closing out the regular season with a 105-91 road loss to Washburn, the Missouri Southern men’s basketball team (18-9, 10-8 MIAA) is looking forward to the MIAA conference tournament Friday through Sunday in Kansas City.

Although a loss was not the desired outcome of the game, Robert Corn, head coach, said the team showed some positive signs.

Southern cut a 21-point Washburn lead to only seven points at one time in the game, and the Lions never showed signs of giving up.

“The guys just kept battling, and that is the most important thing to remember in a game like that,” Corn said.

“But that has been the character of this team all season. They just refuse to give up.”

Despite the loss to Washburn, Southern is going into the post season with a high degree of confidence.

And one game, Corn said, is not going to change that mindset or take any wind out of the team’s sails.

“It is important to go into the tournament with confidence to be successful,” Corn said “And we have the mindset that we can beat Emporia.”

The Lions begin their tournament play at 2:30 p.m on Friday, against Emporia State University.

Even though ESU has beaten Southern twice this year, the Lions believe they can beat the Griffons.

“We wanted to play Emporia,” said senior forward Jamahr Warren. “We have something to prove to them and the conference, so we are pretty excited to have a chance to beat them.”

The key to a Southern win against ESU is solid defense, Corn said.

“We cannot pay too much attention to stopping (Robbie) Ballard, their leading scorer,” Corn said.

“Nobody has been able to stop him this year, and if we forget about the rest of their team, we are going to be in trouble. We just have to try to throw their whole team off offensively.”

Warren and Corn agree that Southern’s ability to put points on the board will be a big advantage for the Lions.

They know that in order to win they have to be able to keep a positive flow offensively.

Other advantages the Lions will have are their improved team rebounding and their ability to keep turnovers to a minimum.

On the other hand, Corn thinks that in order to win the Lions must improve on their half-court and transitional pickup defense.

“We know that we can’t give up 90-100 points and still be successful during the tournament,” Corn said.

“Defense will be a big factor in our success or failure. Our defense has been hurting us away from home all year.”

“It’s something that we have been working hard to improve, so if we pick up a little on the defensive end, we should be in pretty good shape,” Warren said.

The overall feeling for the Lions is one of optimism.

They are happy to still be playing and to have the opportunity to progress in the post season.

“We’re hoping to play three games in the conference tournament,” Corn said. “But we know we have to take it one game at a time. We can’t look past Emporia State.”