Murray St. takes ticket to dance

From staff, wire reports

It's beginning to look like March Madness.

Murray State, Florida Atlantic and Winthrop were among the men's basketball teams that secured bids to the NCAA Tournament on Saturday, eight days before the tournament's selection committee announces first-round pairings.

At Louisville, Ky., Justin Burdine scored 24 points, including a jumper in the lane with 9.1 seconds left that gave Murray State (19-12) the lead, and the Racers beat Tennessee Tech 70-69 to win the Ohio Valley Conference tournament and earn a berth in the NCAA tournament.

Tennessee Tech (24-6), seeking its first NCAA tournament appearance since 1963, had two final chances to win. Cameron Crisp missed an off-balance 3-pointer and Damien Kinloch's follow shot bounced off the rim as the buzzer sounded.

Antione Whelchel scored 17 points for Murray State, which won its fourth OVC tournament title in the past six years and earned the school's 12th NCAA appearance.

At Roanoke, Va., Ivan Jenkins scored 16 points and Winthrop (19-11) limited High Point (11-19) to 32 percent shooting as the Eagles claimed their fourth straight Big South Conference tournament title with a 70-48 victory.

The championship was the fourth in as many years for Winthrop coach Gregg Marshall, whose team will wait until next Sunday to see if it will be relegated to the NCAA tournament opening-round game, as it was last year.

High Point is in its fourth season at the Division I level.

At Orlando, Fla., Raheim Brown had 19 points and eight rebounds and Florida Atlantic (19-11) beat Georgia State (20-10) 76-75 to win the Atlantic Sun championship and earn its first trip to the tournament.

Robert Williams made the second of two free throws with 6.1 seconds left to break a 75-75 tie.

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