(St. Louis, MO) – Constant change is here to stay. Eastern Kentucky is the newest champion of the Ohio Valley Conference after their 79-73 win over Belmont. The ‘Music City Madness’ champion Colonels never trailed in the game and are heading to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2007.
As WWE super star says, “to be the best you have to beat the best” and the Colonels took down the defending tournament and reigning regular season champion Belmont on their way to the big dance.
Corey Walden – ekusports.com
The Bruins were trying to be the first back-to-back tournament champ since Murray State won three straight finishing in 1999. It is the sixth tournament crown for EKU as Cory Walden scored a career high 29 points in the final, earning the tournament’s MVP award. He and teammates Glenn Closey and Tarius Johnson were named to the all-tournament team.
Head Coach Jeff Neubaur’s team is now 24 and 9 after setting a school record with 25 wins last season. He said the best part of winning is watching his players,
“For me, the most rewarding part of this and it’s not even close – it’s just watching these guys celebrate. Feeling Glenn Cosey’s emotion right now and how excited he is but not just Glenn all 15 of our players. There are 12 teams in the OVC that work for this opportunity to be the one team to go the NCAA Tournament and to end up on top at the end is an amazing feeling especially when you’ve spent so much time with these young men.”
Belmont finishes the regular season at 24 and 10 and has to wait for an invitation to one of three other post season tournaments, but the Bruins are practically a lock for NIT, CIT or CBI tournaments. The loss ends a three year tournament win streak for Head Coach Rick Byrd’s team. They won the Atlantic Sun in 2011 and 2012 and the OVC tournament last year.
OVC Player of the Year, J. J. Mann led the the Bruins with 18 points in the loss.
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