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High Point, Lipscomb, and Drake all claim automatic bids by winning conference championship games on Sunday

The first Sunday of Champ Week saw three NCAA Tournament automatic bids claimed, with High Point winning the Big South title over Winthrop, Lipscomb holding off North Alabama in the ASUN, and Drake winning its third straight Arch Madness title.

Starting in the Big South, High Point and Winthrop met at a neutral site in Johnson City, Tennessee where the top-seeded Panthers got out to an early 14-9 advantage. Winthrop would be in control for the following nine minutes though, going on a 24-4 run to take a commanding lead over the conference’s regular season champions. High Point would begin its crawl back into the game late in the first half, trailing 39-29 at the break.

Winthrop went on a 9-4 run out of halftime, sending the teams into the under-16 media timeout with vastly different conversations in the huddles. Alan Huss’s High Point team has made its depth a staple point this season, and it would prove to be vital over the course of this game’s second half. Huss went five-in, five-out out of the media break, and the subs scored the game’s next 14 points to bring High Point within one.

Starting guard Kezza Giffa would have a solid game finishing with 16 points, but outside of Giffa, the Panthers had to rely heavily on their bench. Trae Benham would give High Point its first lead in the second half with an and-one and the score at 55-52, and HPU never looked back. Benham finished with eight points and ten rebounds, while fellow bench mobbers Bobby Pettiford and Abdoulaye Thiam finished in double figures with 12 points and 17 points respectively. High Point would go onto score 52 second-half points, cruising to an 81-69 win.

With the title game hosted by the conference’s top seed in the ASUN, Lipscomb played host to second-seeded North Alabama in Nashville, Tennessee. The Bisons got out to a 35-29 halftime lead after a 17-4 run early in the first half. North Alabama’s Jacari Lane, one of the ASUN’s top players, didn’t have an efficient night from the field, shooting just 7-of-21, but the junior guard made a handful of big shots in the game for the Lions, including one to put his team up 44-43 with 14 minutes to go.

After a tightly contested stretch for much of the second half, Lipscomb scored 14 of the game’s final 19 points, keyed largely by the play of Joe Anderson, who scored 12 of those points with two clutch three-pointers and finished with 23 points.

The Missouri Valley final was the most straightforward of the three championship games played on Sunday, as Drake’s 13-0 run spanning either side of halftime put the game in the Bulldogs’ control. Headed by four-time Division II national championship-winning coach Ben McCollum and possible All-American guard Bennett Stirtz, when Drake is able to control the pace of the game, more often than not it’s the Bulldogs who end up victorious. I got a chance to see Drake in-person against Northern Iowa this season, and the way Stirtz can control every aspect of the game is unmatched in college basketball.

Stirtz played all 40 minutes for Drake, who was in full control for all of the second half. The junior point guard finished with 24 points, four rebounds, and four assists, helping Drake clinch its third straight Arch Madness title in Stirtz’s first year at the Division I level. Bradley’s high-powered offense was held to 48 points in the 63-48 Bulldogs win, and the nation’s leading team in three-point percentage shot just five-of-20 against Drake’s elite defense.

High Point and Lipscomb could be dangerous with the right matchup, but this Drake team has a chance against just about anyone with the way they can slow the game down and control the pace, putting the ball in the hands of Bennett Stirtz, who is more often than not the best player on the floor.

Other Things to Note:

• #8 Michigan State dominates #17 Michigan 79-62 on Senior Day
• Iowa knocks off Nebraska 83-68 on the road to claim final Big Ten Tournament spot
• Pepperdine continues miracle WCC Tournament run with 78-76 upset of Santa Clara
• Arkansas State and Troy meet for third time this season in Sun Belt championship game (7:00 ET, ESPN2)
• Underdogs Wofford and Furman meet in SoCon title game (7:00 ET, ESPN)