Mount St. Mary’s earns unlikely NCAA bid
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MOON TOWNSHIP — Rashad Whack scored 20 points and four of his teammates finished in double figures and Mount St. Mary’s clinched an NCAA tournament berth with an 88-71 victory against Robert Morris in the Northeast Conference title game Tuesday night.
The fourth-seeded Mountaineers (16-16) built a 20-point first-half lead and never looked back, shooting 60.4 percent from the field to win their fourth conference title in school history and first since 2008.
Julian Norfleet scored 17; Taylor Danaher and Sam Prescott scored 15, and Will Miller added 11 for the Mountaineers, whose four NEC championship game victories all came on the road.
Milwaukee 69, Wright State 63
DAYTON, Ohio — Senior forward Kyle Kelm had a double-double and Milwaukee’s front line dominated, and the Panthers led the whole way to win the Horizon League tournament title.
Milwaukee (21-13) is back in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2006, when the Panthers knocked off Oklahoma in the first round before losing to Florida. They’re 3-3 all-time in the tournament.
Kelm had 20 points and nine rebounds, and Jordan Aaron scored 18 points as Milwaukee went 9 of 18 from beyond the arc against the league’s top defense and had a 35-28 edge in rebounds.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
No. 18 Gonzaga 71, BYU 57
LAS VEGAS — Keani Albanez scored 20 points and Gonzaga dominated BYU defensively to win the West Coast Conference tournament for the sixth time in seven years.
After some early struggles against WCC player of the year Jennifer Hamson, Gonzaga (29-4) turned the title game into a rout, holding the Cougars (26-6) to 30 percent shooting while forcing 21 turnovers.
Hamson scored eight quick points, but the Bulldogs limited her chances during a key stretch to build a 16-point halftime lead. She finished with 24 points on 10-of-18 shooting.
Penn 80, Princeton 64
PRINCETON, N.J. — Alyssa Baron scored 23 points and Sydney Stipanovich added 19 to lead Penn over rival Princeton, giving the Quakers the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
It’s Penn’s first title since the 2003-04 season and the Quakers ended the Tigers’ stranglehold atop the conference. Princeton had won the previous four league championships.
Tuesday night’s game marked only the second time in league history that the final game of the regular season decided the champion. The previous time came in 1995 when the championship came down to the final game between Harvard and Dartmouth.
South Dakota 82, Denver 71
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Polly Harrington scored 16 points to lead South Dakota to a win over Denver for the Summit League basketball title and the Coyotes’ first trip to the NCAA tournament.
Raeshel Contreras and Bridget Arens each added 13 points for the Coyotes (19-13), who earned their first Summit League crown and the automatic bid to the NCAAs. Nicole Seekamp shot just 3-of-12 from the field but contributed with 12 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and five steals.
Desiree Hunter led Denver (9-23) with 14 points, and Paige Bradley and Theresa Wirth each added 13 for the Pioneers.
