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Troy and Wofford become the next two teams to punch tickets to the NCAA Tournament with conference championship game victories on Monday night

Both teams did it in high-scoring fashion, but ultimately the only thing that matters is that they got the job done. Troy and Wofford are both headed back to the NCAA Tournament after Monday night’s results, with the Trojans reaching their first tournament since 2017 and the Terriers reaching their first since 2019.

Capping off a week-long gauntlet in Pensacola, Florida, the Sun Belt’s third and fourth seeds meets in the conference’s championship game. Arkansas State was the third seed while Troy was the fourth, but the game was anticipated to be extremely close, with both teams winning on each other’s homecourt in the regular season.

After a tightly contested first half finished with Derrian Ford putting Arkansas State ahead 43-41 at the break, Troy came out quick out of the gates to take an early second half lead. After Troy’s 7-0 run began the half, both teams fought back and forth for a long stretch. Dyondre Dominguez and Ford would hit back-to-back threes with ten minutes to go though, putting the Trojans’ backs against the wall as the game headed down the stretch.

Tayton Conerway would then take over for the Trojans, leading the team on a 16-2 run trailing 66-58, scoring eight points during a four-minute stretch. Conerway would add eight more to his final total of 21 points over the last four minutes, scoring a couple of late buckets and icing the game at the free throw lane. Once taking that 74-68 lead, Troy never let Arkansas State get within less than four, completing a 94-81 win to earn head coach Scott Cross his first tournament bid since 2008 with UT Arlington.

Into the SoCon, where it was another tightly contested first half and high scoring second half. After Wofford led 27-14 just over ten minutes into the game, Furman went on a 25-10 run to close the half, as PJay Smith Jr., Nick Anderson, and Charles Johnston knocked down threes on three straight possessions to give the Paladins a lead.

The game stayed close for much of the second half, before Dillon Bailey and Justin Bailey knocked down back-to-back three-pointers to give Wofford a 75-69 lead. The Paladins wouldn’t back down though, and after falling behind 79-74, rattled off nine straight points to go ahead with two and a half minutes to play.

Trailing 83-79, Wofford got buckets from Kyler Filewich and Jackson Sivills in a 23-second span to go ahead 84-83. It was all business from there, as the Terriers got the necessary stops and knocked down all eight free throw attempts to earn a 92-85 and punch their ticket to the NCAA Tournament.

While both Troy and Wofford weren’t their conference’s top seeds, both have a solid chance with the right matchup to complete a first round upset in the NCAA Tournament.

Other Things to Note:

• ACC and Big 12 conference tournaments tip off on Tuesday afternoon
• CAA’s 12th-seeded Delaware looks to complete miracle run against UNCW in CAA title game (7:00 ET, CBSSN)
• St. Francis (PA) and Central Connecticut State meet in the NEC title game with the winner claiming the conference’s auto bid (7:00 ET, ESPN2)
• Robert Morris and Youngstown State meet in Indianapolis for Horizon League title game (7:00 ET, ESPN)
• Gonzaga looks to finally beat #19 St. Mary’s on the third try this season in the WCC title game (9:00 ET, ESPN)