WEATHERFORD, Okla. – Men's Hoops closes out the regular season with a pair of games this week, first at East Central on Thursday before hosting Southern Nazarene on Saturday for Senior Day. As it stands, SWOSU sits tied for eighth in the conference standings. The top eight teams qualify for the postseason tournament.

It's a pivotal week for the Dawgs who are tied with Ouachita for that eighth (and final) postseason spot. Behind SWOSU and Ouachita in the standings sits Northwestern and Arkansas-Monticello one game back. Many scenarios exist for the Bulldogs to qualify for the tournament, but none easier than simply winning.  

The Dawgs defeated East Central 63-60 at home back on December 10. SWOSU grabbed 19 offensive rebounds in the contest that led to 21 second chance points and got a strong double-double effort from Ben Smith (20 pts, 13 reb) to earn the win.

The Tigers are 16-10 overall on the season and 11-9 in conference play and recently clinched a spot in the GAC Tournament as the latest team to do so. They have won six out of their last seven games and are riding a four-game win streak heading into Thursday's matchup.

In the final game before Christmas Break, SWOSU pushed league-leading Southern Nazarene to overtime but were unable to pull out the win after falling 71-63.

The Dawgs trailed 17-4 in that game before mounting a comeback. SNU is 23-3 on the season and has only one blemish on their league record at 19-1. They are nationally ranked in a pair of polls, the NABC and D2SIDA, at No. 13 and 11 respectively.

SWOSU is 5-7 against ECU in Ada and 3-8 against SNU in Weatherford in the GAC era.