SEARCY – It has been a very special season for the Harding men's basketball team and the fun has just begun.

Harding won its first Gulf South Conference Tournament with an 80-61 victory over 13th-ranked Arkansas Tech in the championship game and qualified for the NCAA Division II Tournament for the third time in program history.

Saturday at 2:30 p.m., the next stage of this storybook season begins as Harding takes on Stillman College in the quarterfinal round of the NCAA II South Regional in Huntsville, Ala.

The Bisons entered the GSC Tournament as a team on the bubble. For five consecutive weeks, Harding was the No. 7 team in the South Region Rankings and knew that it needed a strong performance at the tournament to solidify a continued run in the postseason as one of the eight teams in the regional tournament.

Harding took the first step with a 74-63 victory over West Georgia in the GSC quarterfinals. The Bisons then stunned the Division II basketball world with a 31-point victory over fourth-ranked Alabama-Huntsville in the semis. Harding closed out the tournament with its school-record 25th victory of the season in the championship.

With its three tournament victories, Harding jumped all the way to the No. 2 seed in the regional, and will meet Stillman, the No. 7 seed, and an at-large qualifier from the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Harding was the No. 7 seed in 2003 and No. 6 in 2008. The Bisons lost their opening round game each time.

Harding and Stillman have never met in men's basketball, but the teams have some similarities. The Bisons are the fifth-best 3-point shooting team in Division II, hitting 40.8 percent of its long-range shots. The Tigers don't shoot as high of a percentage but make 9.4 three-pointers per game, good for sixth in the nation.

Three senior starters—guard Stephen Blake, guard Sam Brown and forward Kevin Brown--have led the Bisons throughout the season, and all three earned GSC All-Tournament honors. Blake, who averaged 17.7 points in the three games, was the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

All five of Harding's starters average 9.0 points or more and 23.0 minutes or more. Blake is the leading 3-point shooter in the conference at 55.2 percent, and junior Bradley Spencer is second at 44.4 percent. Kevin Brown is second in the GSC in field goal percentage at 63.7 percent. Sam Brown averages 10.1 points, and Kirk Porter averages 9.5 points and 5.0 rebounds.

Harding's top two players off the bench are both freshmen. Hayden Johnson averages 6.4 points and Weston Jameson scores 5.2 points per game. Both are threats from 3-point range.

The leader for the Tigers is senior guard LaJay Sears, an All-South Region performer who averages 19.87 points.

Stillman reached the finals of the SIAC Tournament before falling 78-71 to Clark-Atlanta in the championship game.

If Harding can get past Stillman on Saturday, the Bisons would meet the winner of Rollins and Florida Southern on Sunday at 5 p.m. The championship game is Sunday at 7:30 p.m.

The winner of the South Regional advances to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight in Springfield, Mass. The Elite Eight begins March 23.