COLLEGE BASKETBALL ROUNDUP : East Carolina (13-16) Earns Berth in NCAA Tournament

East Carolina’s Pirates are taking their losing record and heading to the NCAA tournament, courtesy of another late-season slip by James Madison’s Dukes.

East Carolina (13-16) became the lowest-seeded team to win the Colonial Athletic Assn. tournament with a 54-49 victory over James Madison (21-8) Monday night at Richmond, Va.

It was the third time in four years that Coach Lefty Driesell led the Dukes to the conference title game. James Madison has lost all three.

Western Kentucky 72, No. 13 New Orleans 63--Darnell Mee led the Hilltoppers (24-5) past the Privateers (26-3) in the Sun Belt Conference tournament championship game at Biloxi, Miss.

No. 17 Iowa 56, Northwestern 50--The Hawkeyes (20-8) overcame their worst first half of the season to hand the Wildcats (8-18) their 27th consecutive loss at Iowa City.

No. 20 Massachusetts 76, Rhode Island 50--The Minutemen (22-6) held the Rams (18-10) to 33% shooting to earn a spot in the Atlantic 10 Conference championship game in Philadelphia. Temple (17-11) reached the title game with a 71-60 victory over St. Joseph’s (18-10).

OTHER GAMES

Chris Lowery scored 14 points to lead Southern Illinois (23-9) in a 70-59 victory over Illinois State (19-10) for the Missouri Valley Conference tournament championship. . . . Manhattan (23-6) held on for a 68-67 victory over Niagara (23-6) in the title game of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament at New York.