KATY — Stephen F. Austin will be the top seed in the 2015 Southland Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament when it begins Wednesday at the Leonard E. Merrell Center.

The Lumberjacks were an impressive 17-1 in conference play to win their third consecutive conference title and fifth overall. SFA capped its regular season with a 64-55 victory over rival Sam Houston State on Saturday to win the title outright.

SFA is in the tournament for the 19th time and are looking to become the first team to repeat as tournament champions since Louisiana-Monroe won four straight from 1990-1993.

The Lumberjacks receive a double-bye into the semifinals on Friday.

In the SFA half of the bracket are No. 4 seed Northwestern State, No. 5 seed McNeese State and No. 8 seed Southeastern Louisiana. The Cowboys and Lions will open the tournament at 5 p.m. Wednesday.

The winner of the Southeastern-McNeese game will play No. 4 seed Northwestern State at 5 p.m. Thursday at 5 p.m.

On the other side of the bracket, Sam Houston State locked up the No. 2 seed after finishing 15-3 in league play and 24-7 overall. The Bearkats are in the tournament for the 18th time and for the 12th consecutive year. The Bearkats reached the championship game last season and are looking for their third tournament title and first since 2010. Sam Houston, like SFA, has a double bye into semifinals and will play its first game at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

The first game on the Bearkats’ side of the bracket pits No. 6 seed Nicholls and No. 7 seed New Orleans. No. 3 seed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi awaits the winner of the UNO-Nicholls game for a second-round game at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

The first four games of the men’s tournament will be streamed live for free on the Southland Conference Digital Network, including Southland.org/watch and the league’s mobile and tablet apps. The semifinals will be available solely on ESPN3, while the championship game will be covered exclusively on ESPN2 and WatchESPN.

The winner of the tournament will receive the Southland’s automatic bid into the NCAA tournament. The selection show is at 5 p.m. Sunday on CBS.

Tickets to the 2015 Southland Conference Basketball Tournament are available through Ticketmaster and at the Merrell Center box office beginning at 10 a.m. Tuesday. This is the eighth consecutive year for the event to be played in Katy.