Northeastern denies William & Mary a spot in NCAA tournament

Northeastern captured the Colonial Athletic Association championship Monday night in Baltimore with a 72-61 victory over top-seeded William & Mary, which failed again to earn its first trip to the NCAA tournament.

Quincy Ford scored 22 points and David Walker added 15 for the Huskies (23-11), who will be making their first NCAA tournament appearance since 1991.

That’s a relatively short stretch compared to that of William & Mary (20-12), one of only five of the original Division I teams that has never participated in the NCAA tournament. The others are Army, Northwestern, St. Francis (N.Y.) and The Citadel.

Third-seeded Northeastern scored the game’s first 10 points and never trailed in winning its first CAA title. William & Mary was playing in the CAA final for the fourth time in eight years.

Marcus Thornton scored 20 for the Tribe, which trailed by 22 points with 3:39 left.

Wofford 67, Furman 64: Lee Skinner scored 17 points, Eric Garcia added 15, and the Terriers (28-6) held off the Paladins (11-22) to win the Southern Conference championship in Asheville, N.C., and earn their fourth trip to the NCAA tournament in six seasons.

Furman was the tournament’s lowest seed, but pulled off upsets over The Citadel, Chattanooga and Mercer to reach the title game. Geoff Beans had 15 points on five three-pointers for the Paladins.

Manhattan 79, Iona 69: Ashton Pankey had 21 points and 10 rebounds and the third-seeded Jaspars (19-13) upset the top-seeded Gaels (26-8) to win the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title in Albany, N.Y.

WOMEN’S GAMES

Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis scored 23 points and No. 1 Connecticut (32-1) won the American Athletic Conference tournament with an 84-70 win over South Florida (26-7) in Uncasville, Conn. ... Baylor, ranked No. 5 in the nation, beat Texas, 75-64, in Dallas to win its fifth Big 12 tournament title in a row. The Bears improved to 30-3 and the Longhorns fell to 22-10. ... Jasmine Martin scored 18 points to help Quinnipiac (31-3) beat Marist, 72-61, and win the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament in Albany, N.Y., ending the nine-year run as champions by the Red Foxes (21-11).