Wednesday afternoon, the UAH Chargers practiced on home court for the final time before taking off for Valdosta State where they’ll play in the second round of the NCAA tournament on Sunday.

On the heels of a loss to the Blazers in the GSC championship game, the team is excited as they head into the tournament. Despite falling in the title game, the team still clinched a two seed in the tournament and a first-round bye.

For a team that players called “old,” a free pass to the second round and the extra time to prepare are incredibly valuable to the squad.

“It’s awesome. We’ve got an old team, everyone’s just running their last leg, you know? We got -- JJ’s been battling the whole year. We’re old,” Max Shulman said. “And we haven’t ever been here before. We should have been here last year, played the year before and got beat in the first round. So to skip a whole round and everything that comes with it is huge.”

“We’re definitely excited about the bye and that’s massive and so we’re really excited,” Kerney Lane added. “Obviously not a lot of teams are left playing and that’s a really good feeling to have but we’re also still hungry and have a lot to accomplish.”

UAH will play the winner of Saturday’s first-round matchup between Georgia Southwestern and Lee.