COLLEGE BASKETBALL ROUNDUP : Old Dominion (15-14) Makes NCAA

Old Dominion earned a trip to the NCAA tournament, by beating James Madison, 78-73, in the Colonial Athletic Assn. tournament final Monday at Richmond, Va.

Tournament MVP Ricardo Leonard had 18 points and 10 rebounds and Keith Jackson had 19 points and seven rebounds to lead the Monarchs to the league’s automatic NCAA bid.

A first-year CAA member with a first-year coach, Oliver Purnell, the Monarchs (15-14) extended their longest winning streak of the season to five games.

ATLANTIC 10

West Virginia made only 17 of 49 shots (34.7%), but that was good enough to beat Temple, 44-41, an Atlantic 10 tournament semifinal at Philadelphia. Temple shot even worse, making 14 of 54 (29.9%). The Owls were three for 26 from three-point range.

In Thursday’s tournament final, West Virginia faces No. 22 Massachusetts, a 78-67 winner over Rhode Island.

In the second half of the first game, West Virginia (20-10) went 10:46 without scoring, missing 11 shots, enabling Temple (17-12) to take a 41-40 lead with 6:01 to play.

The game’s remaining points came on layup by Tracey Shelton with 4:30 left, and two free throws by Chris Leonard with 2:08 left.

Harper Williams scored 20 points to lead Massachusetts (27-4) over Rhode Island (20-9).

METRO ATLANTIC

LaSalle earned its fourth NCAA tournament bid in five years by beating Manhattan, 77-76, in the final of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament at Albany, N.Y. Manhattan was leading by a point and focusing on LaSalle stars Jack Hurd and Randy Woods when Bron Holland made a jump shot from the foul line with 11 seconds to play to provide the winning margin.

The shot capped a 6-0 rally for La Salle (20-10) in the final 1:07 and denied Manhattan (23-8) its first trip to the NCAAs since 1958.

MISSOURI VALLEY

Freshmen Johnny Murdock and Tim Axley, a reserve, made clutch free throws in the final seconds as Southwest Missouri State beat Tulsa, 71-68, at St. Louis for the Missouri Valley Conference tournament title.

Southwest Missouri (23-7) earned an automatic NCAA tournament berth, its fifth in six years.

MID-CONTINENT

David Olson scored 23 points including a tournament-record six three-pointers, as Eastern Illinois upset top-seeded Wisconsin Green Bay, 75-65, in a Mid-Continent Conference semifinal game at Cleveland.

In tonight’s final, the Panthers (16-13) will meet Illinois Chicago (16-13), which beat Cleveland State, 83-59, after leading by only three at halftime.

Eastern Illinois avenged two regular-season losses to Wisconsin Green Bay (25-4).

Tony Bennett led Wisconsin Green Bay with 20 points, but the senior guard fell seven points shy of the conference’s career scoring record of 2,256, set by former Cleveland State guard Ken McFadden.

EAST COAST

Towson State won its third consecutive East Coast Conference tournament title by defeating Hofstra, 69-61. Chuck Lightening scored 22 points to lead the Tigers (17-13).