Last season, Western Carolina came within 10 minutes of clinching its first NCAA Tournament berth. This season, the Catamounts made sure it didn't come to that.Multimedia from conference tournament week
Western Carolina (17-12) used balanced first-half scoring to post a 12-point halftime lead and cruised to a 69-60 victory over Davidson in the Southern Conference championship game.
The Catamounts became the sixth school to earn a berth in the NCAA Tournament. Purdue, Central Florida, South Carolina State, North Carolina-Greensboro and Austin Peay earned berths Saturday.
The loss may have ended tournament hopes for Davidson (25-4), which had won the North Division of the Southern Conference with a perfect 16-0 record.
"I think the facts are pretty clear," Davidson coach Bob McKillop said. "This isn't just a team that has won 25 games, this team has won 25 games and made a statement about winning those 25 games."
Also waiting and hoping the tournament committee looks upon it favorably is No. 22 Wisconsin-Green Bay (25-3), which lost to Detroit 56-50 Sunday in the semifinals of the Midwestern Collegiate Conference tournament at Dayton, Ohio.
"We'd like to think that we're in, but it's now in the hands of the committee," Wisconsin-Green Bay guard Gary Grzesk said. "We deserve to be in."
Four more tournament bids will be up for grabs Monday when the Colonial Athletic Association, Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, Missouri Valley Conference and West Coast Conference all hold conference tournament championship games.
In the Pacific-10 Conference, No. 17 UCLA (21-7) needs one more win in its final two games or a loss by 11th-ranked Arizona (22-5) to clinch the outright title and an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.
The Pac-10 does not conduct a post-season tournament. Arizona edged Washington 67-65 Sunday, and UCLA, which is 14-2 in the Pac-10 and holds a two-game lead over Arizona, hosts Washington on Thursday.
Princeton (20-5) and Penn (16-9) will meet Tuesday to possibly determine the Ivy League's automatic bid. If host Penn wins, the schools teams will hold a one-game playoff to determine the automatic bid for the conference, which also does not conduct a post-season tourney.
