The Conference Tournaments are here. And while many of us were watching North Carolina wrap up the ACC by beating their rivals on their home court, or were watching Connecticut survive a slow start to win on the road at Providence, one of the most critical games of the night was being playing in Evansville, Indiana.
This is where the Ohio Valley Conference hosted their conference tournament, and in the championship game regular season co-champs Morehead State faced #1 seed and co-champs Arkansas-Little Rock. In the regular season, Little Rock beat the Eagles in the final seconds, helping them claim the top seed in the OVC tournament.
But tonight, it was a different story. The Eagles jumped out to a 21-4 lead to start the game, allowed Little Rock to come all the way back to take an early second half lead at 36-35, and then took the game over – cruising to a 69-55 victory. Riley Minix led the Eagles with 26 points and Drew Thelwell added 21 on their way to the OVC tournament title.
That victory gives Morehead State a very precious prize – the Eagles have become the first team to earn their automatic bid into this year’s NCAA Championship.
It has kind of been a wild day – as one might expect in March. The top two teams in the Missouri Valley won their semi-finals to set up Sunday’s championship between Indiana State (28-5) and Drake (27-6). The top seed in the Sun Belt, Appalachian State (27-5) survived their quarterfinal in overtime while James Madison (29-3) also advanced to keep the dream matchup in the Sun Belt alive.
Things did not go so well for Richmond and South Florida – two teams who surprised everyone by locking up the 1 seed in their conferences to enter the bubble picture. But they both took surprising losses on Saturday, meaning that they will likely have to win their conference tournaments to advance. At least, they still have their conference tournaments ahead. High Point, the regular season champion of the Big South, got upset in overtime against Longwood in the Big South semi-finals.
And that doesn’t even cover all the big games in the major conferences. But they will get enough press throughout the upcoming weeks. Tonight belongs to the Morehead State Eagles, the Ohio Valley Conference Champions. And three more teams will earn their ticket to the dance on Sunday as the Missouri Valley, Big South and Atlantic Sun will crown their champions.
IT MUST BE MARCH!!!!!