Winthrop Returns to NCAA Tournament

Winthrop defeated Charleston Southern, 68-46, on Saturday at Rock Hill, S.C., to win the Big South Conference title and the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

That’s where Winthrop (27-5) used to go on a regular basis. The top-seeded Eagles made it in each of Coach Gregg Marshall’s first four seasons before missing out in 2003 and 2004.

“It’s a painful situation when you’re not in it, when you approach things the way we approach them here,” Marshall said. Marshall tells his players at the first practice of the season they are expected to win the Big South title.

Winthrop is riding an 18-game winning streak, the third longest in the country behind top-ranked Illinois and No. 17 Pacific.

The Big South tournament games played at the site of the higher seed, so the seventh-seeded Buccaneers (13-17) were trying to pull off three wins in a row on the road for the title.

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Eastern Kentucky 52, Austin Peay 46 -- The Colonels (22-8) earned their first NCAA tournament berth since 1979 by holding off the Governors (13-19) to win the Ohio Valley Conference tournament at Nashville. The Colonels will be making their sixth NCAA tournament appearance and first under Coach Travis Ford.

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Central Florida 63, Gardner-Webb 54 -- The Golden Knights (24-8) clinched their second straight NCAA tournament appearance and fourth overall by beating the Runnin’ Bulldogs (18-12) in the finals of the Atlantic Sun Conference tournament at Nashville.

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Chattanooga 66, North Carolina Greensboro 62 -- The Mocs (20-10) beat the Spartans (18-12) at Chattanooga, Tenn., to win the Southern Conference tournament and a berth in the NCAA tournament. This is their ninth conference title and first since 1997.

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Weber State 74, Sacramento State 71 -- The fifth-seeded Wildcats (13-15) beat the fourth-seeded Hornets (12-16) at Sacramento, eliminating them from the Big Sky Conference tournament for the third season in a row.