March is here and conference tournament play is here as well which mean tickets are and will be punched for the NCAA Tournament for the men and women's basketball. The first tickets on both sides were punched yesterday with both coming from the Ohio Valley Conference.
OVC Women's Championship
The OVC Women's Final featured Tennesse Tech against Belmont. It was the third meeting between the two programs. They split regular season with the road team winning. This meeting, however, was not close after halftime. The Bruins leading 17-14 beginning of the second half outscored the Golden Eagles 21-12 in the third quarter to lead by 12 going into the final quarter. The Bruins will win by the final score 51-29.
Destinee Wells led the way with 22 points. The top-seeded Bruins held the second-seeded Golden Eagles to 17% shooting on 9-of-52 and forced 17 turnovers.
This is the Bruins six OVC Title in seven years. They were appearance in their six NCAA Tournament in the same number of years both excluding the 2020 season which was cancel due to the Global Pandemic. The Belmont Bruins going into the NCAA Tournament on a 12-game winning streak.
OVC Men's Championship
The OVC Men's Final had top-seeded Murray State Racers against third-seeded Morehead State Eagles. A highly contested game from start to finish. The first half ended in a 34-34 tie leaving the second half as a much anticipated which delivered with neither team grabbing more than a six-point advantage.
With the Racers up 66-61 with 90 seconds to go, Tray Hollowell kept the Eagles chances of repeating alive with back-to-back 3-pointers cutting the Racers lead to one at 68-67, but Tevin Brown of the Racers sealed the title with a block 3-pointer on Hollowell for Murray State and they salted the game away at the free-throw line.
Tevin Brown led the Racers with 23 points to go with that enormous block 3-pointer. Justice Hill scored 21 points and was named Tournament MVP. The Racers are going back to the Big Dance after winning their third conference tournament title under Matt McMahon. The Racers finished with an undefeated conference record.
More Tickets to be Punched Today
More tickets will be punched today on this Champs Week Sunday. For the men there will be two tickets punched. First the Big South Championship as the top-seeded Longwood against second-seeded Winthrop on ESPN 2 at noon. Then the Missouri Valley Championship as second-seeded Drake faces off against third-seeded Loyola Chicago at 2:00PM on CBS.
For the women, there will be six tickets punched after today. First is the ACC Championship featuring the top-seeded North Carolina State Wolfpack against surprising seventh-seeded Miami Hurricanes on ESPN at noon. Also going on at noon is the Southern Championship as top-seeded Mercer goes against third-seeded Furman.
At 2:00PM on ESPN will be the SEC Championship with overall number one South Carolina Gamecocks against surprising seventh-seeded Kentucky Wildcats. Also, at 2:00PM on ESPN 2 is the Atlantic 10 Championship with top-seeded Dayton Flyers against third-seeded Massachusetts.
At 4:00PM following the A10 Championship on ESPN 2 will be the Big Ten Championship with second-seeded and number 12. Iowa against fifth-seeded and number 14. Indiana
The night cap for the ticket punching day is out west for the PAC-12 Championship as top-seeded and number 2 overall Stanford looks to continue their dominance for another PAC-12 Title to face off against surprising sixth-seeded Utah at 6:00PM on ESPN 2.