College basketball: Valparaiso, Robert Morris earn NCAA berths

After trailing at the half, Valparaiso dominated the second 20 minutes and defeated Green Bay, 54-44, on Tuesday night at Valparaiso, Ind., to win the Horizon League tournament championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Valparaiso (28-5), the conference’s regular-season champion, won its second conference tournament title in the past three years.

Green Bay’s Keifer Sykes, the two-time Horizon League player of the year, came into the game averaging 29 points in the last three games for the Phoenix (24-8), but he was held to 14 points on five-of-15 shooting.

Northeast

Rodney Pryor scored 17 points and Robert Morris denied St. Francis of Brooklyn its first NCAA tournament bid, beating the Terriers, 66-63, in the Northeast Conference tournament championship at New York. Second-seeded Robert Morris (19-15) is going back to the tournament for the first time since 2010.

The top-seeded Terriers (23-11) had a chance to tie with 2.4 seconds left when Tyreek Jewell, who scored 19 points, went to the line after being fouled shooting a desperation three-pointer. He missed all three free throws, and Lowell Ulmer’s last-second heave from beyond half-court hit the back of the rim.

Women

Megan Podkowa scored 19 points and DePaul (26-7) defeated No. 24 Seton Hall, 78-68, for its second consecutive Big East tournament title and automatic NCAA bid. Chanise Jenkins added 16 points and Centrese McGee had a season-high 14 points for the second-seeded Blue Demons, who lost twice to the Pirates during the regular season. ... South Dakota State built a big lead in the first half and cruised to its sixth Summit League title in seven years, beating South Dakota State 72-57. Macy Miller scored 19 points and Ellie Thompson had 18 for the Jackrabbits ... Alex Wheatley scored 17 points and No. 13 Princeton capped off an undefeated regular season with a 55-42 victory over Penn. The Tigers (30-0, 14-0 Ivy League) became the 15th team to enter the NCAA tournament unbeaten.