Mount St. Mary's claims NCAA berth

Mar 13, 2008 - 3:55 AM By PA SportsTicker

Mount Saint Mary's left Sacred Heart still searching for its first trip to the NCAA Tournament.

The third-seeded Mountaineers denied the Pioneers a berth in the NCAAs with a 68-55 victory in the Northeast Conference tournament championship on Wednesday.

It will be the third trip to the NCAA Tournament for Mount Saint Mary's (18-14), and the first since 1999.

In the other bid up for grabs on Wednesday, Portland State won the Big Sky championship.

It was also the third league championship for the Mountaineers, and first by a coach other than Jim Phelan, who guided Mount Saint Mary's for 49 years before retiring in 2003.

"In the back of my mind, I knew that bringing a championship home would definitely be great for me," Mount Saint Mary's coach Milan Brown said. "But it is going to put a smirk on his (Jim Phelan's) face too, even though I know he was so nervous that he didn't watch the game."

Losing to the Mountaineers for the first time in two meetings this season, third-seeded Sacred Heart (18-14) came up short in the NEC title game for the second straight season.

Fresh off an upset of top-seeded Robert Morris on Sunday, Mount Saint Mary's built up a nine-point lead in the first half before holding off a late charge from Sacred Heart, which went 10 1/2 minutes with a field goal prior to halftime.

Jean Cajou and Kelly Beidler scored 15 points each for the Mountaineers, who held the Pioneers to 29 percent (16-of-55) shooting.

"We consider ourselves the No. 1 defensive team in the conference and I believe this, right here, proved it," Mount St. Mary's sophomore forward Kelly Beidler said. "We played at their gym, everyone was thinking that they're going to win and we came in and shocked everybody."

Sacred Heart lost in last season's tournament final to Central Connecticut State, but returned under Dave Bike, who has been the coach at the school for 30 years - the second-longest active tenure in Division I behind Syracuse's Jim Boeheim.

"We're disappointed naturally," Bike said. "I thought we had a not so good record at home this year. It's unfortunate we shot 29 percent and you have to tip your hat to Mount St. Mary."

The title game featured just the third time in NEC history that at least one of the top two seeds was not present.

It will be the first trip to the "Big Dance" for Portland State, which posted a 67-51 victory over Northern Arizona in the Big Sky title game.

The top seed, the Vikings (23-9) were led by 17 points from Deonte Huff.

With the Lumberjacks mired in a lengthy shooting slump in the first half, the Vikings took a 34-20 lead at the half. Portland State cruised thereafter in winning for the 14th time in its last 15 games.

Northern Arizona (21-11) was playing in its third straight Big Sky championship, and aiming for its first trip to the NCAAs since 2000.

Including Mount Saint Mary's and Portland State, 14 teams already have punched their tickets to NCAA Tournament, including three on Tuesday - Butler, Oral Roberts and Western Kentucky.