Going into Thursday night’s regular season finale against the McKendree Bearcats, the men’s basketball team (11-16, 5-12 GLVC) was entrenched in a three-team battle for the final spot in the 2016 GLVC Men’s Basketball Tournament, as the Prairie Stars had a one-game lead over Maryville and Missouri S&T in the conference standings.

Although the Prairie Stars lost in overtime to the Bearcats, losses by Maryville and Missouri S&T in their respective games clinched a fifth straight tournament berth for UIS.

The Stars opened the game with a hot start, as they ended the first half with 47 points on a blistering 65 percent shooting from the field. Much of the same would occur in the second half, as they built a seven-point lead with as little as 4:55 left in the game.

The Bearcats, behind a 37-point outing by the GLVC leading scorer David Franklin, would come back to take their first lead of the game with only 55 seconds to go after two made free throws by Michael Jackson. Jackson finished with 18 points in the contest.

Following another pair of free throws by Franklin, the Stars had the ball down three points with less than 20 seconds left in regulation.

With just seven seconds left, center Zach Steinberg converted the game-tying three-point basket, sending the game into overtime.

However, the Stars ran out of gas, as they went one-for-nine in the extra frame, leading to an 88-83 victory for the Bearcats. With the win, the Bearcats clinched a tenth-ranked seed in the GLVC Championship Tournament bracket.

Four Stars ended the game in double figures as Steinberg contributed 16 points, while guards Jamall Millison, JJ Cravatta, and Davi Austin had 13, 14, and 18 points (the team high), respectively.

Had the Stars held on for the victory, they would’ve been seeded tenth in the GLVC Championship Tournament based on conference standings, as both the Stars and Bearcats had identical conference records heading into the matchup.

Nonetheless, the Stars kept their season alive and will start the postseason on Sunday, as they travel to Romeoville, Illinois to face the Lewis University Flyers.

The game will serve as a rematch to last season’s first-round matchup (a 70-52 Flyers win) and last month’s double-overtime thriller (another Lewis victory, 88-80).

According to GLVC rules published on their website, the winner of the Prairie Stars’ first game, along with other first-round winners will be reseeded as five through eight and play against the tournament’s top four seeds who earned a first-round bye.

The teams earning a first-round bye were Bellarmine, Drury, UW-Parkside, and Indianapolis.

The Stars’ first-round game is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m.