The regular season portion of the Southern (21-5, 15-4 MIAA) basketball season is over as the team readies for the program’s 16th straight trip to the MIAA Tournament, but after receiving honors throughout the roster and coaching staff, the last thing the year can be called is regular.

Head Coach Robert Corn, in the final season of his 25-year tenure, was named the MIAA Coach of the Year following the Lions’ punctuation mark victory (102-68) in the final game of the year against Lincoln. This single win in Corn’s fourth 20-win season, taking a Lions team that was projected to finish sixth in preseason polls to within one game of the top spot in the years final standings.

Also honored were three senior mainstays for Southern this season. Marquis Addison, Jordan Talbert and Slim Magee all made it on to All-MIAA teams in the final season of their collegiate careers.

For Addison it was first-team All-MIAA for the first time, third All-MIAA team total, after making the second-team a season ago. This is another milestone for a career that has seen Addison compile a Freshman of the Year award to go along with a sixth ranked all-time in points (1,560) for the Lions.

This year Addison ranks in the top 15 in three different categories including scoring (eighth), the all-important field goal percentage (12th) and shooting at the charity stripe (sixth), but there is still one more accomplishment the team and coach Corn want a checkmark next to.

“The fact that I had the opportunity to play on one of the best teams in school history has always been a source of pride for me,” said Corn. “To be able to go on and win a conference championship and advance to the national playoffs while we’ve been coaching here makes the experience all the more meaningful.”

A feat Corn and the Lions look to duplicate.

Talbert was named to the third-team All-MIAA and the All-Defensive team, which also listed the name of Magee. These two players also played significant roles for the Lions, Talbert ranking forth in the MIAA in rebounding while holding the single-season record for Southern in blocks (61), and Magee ranking atop the MIAA in field goal percentage (.653) on his way to possibly setting the single-season record for Southern this year.

The last games of the year were on the road against two teams struggling to compete this season: Lindenwood (11-18, 6-13 MIAA) and Lincoln (3-24, 1-18 MIAA). It was a perfect recipe for the infamous “trap game,” something the Lions could not afford. After the energizing victory on senior night over Pitt State and two of the better performances of the year, Southern made sure that was nothing more than irrelevant.

The Lions powered past Lindenwood on the back of leading scorer Austin Wright, who dropped in six shots from deep on his way to 23 points, and Magee, who topped his point total (17) with his rebound total (18) on the way to a double-double.

To finish the schedule, the Lions added to the misery that was the basketball season for Lincoln, putting on a clinic from the floor on the way to a 102-68 win. The Lions led in nearly every statistical category, most notably in field goal percentage (56.9 percent) and bench scoring where they led 40 to 22.

Next for the Lions is the first game of the MIAA Tournament in Kansas City’s Municipal Auditorium at 8:15 p.m Mar. 7. It’s the first step to a potential fifth trip to the NCAA Division II Tournament for Coach Corn and a senior-laden team hoping to leave yet another mark in the Southern history books.