Houston surprises UTEP to earn NCAA berth

TULSA, Okla. — As Tom Penders climbed to the top of a ladder to clip down the nets, his players gathered around to make sure he wasn't going to fall.

At age 64, "Tournament Tom" is headed back to the NCAAs — with a little different hop in his step.

Kelvin Lewis scored 28 points and made six 3-pointers to break a Conference USA championship game record, and Houston surged past No. 25 UTEP for an 81-73 victory Saturday to claim its first NCAA Tournament berth in 18 years.

Penders is in for the first time since 1999, when he was at George Washington, and joins an elite fraternity of eight coaches who have taken four different schools to the NCAA Tournament — including Rick Pitino, Eddie Sutton and Lon Kruger.

The seventh-seeded Cougars (19-15) upset four-time defending champion Memphis and likely burst its NCAA bubble in the quarterfinals. Houston probably snatched away another team's tournament berth by snapping the top-seeded Miners' 16-game winning streak to win the title.UTEP is still on track for its first NCAA appearance since 2005.

America East

VERMONT 83, BOSTON U. 70: At Burlington, Vt., Marqus Blakely scored 24 points to lead Vermont over Boston University for the America East championship and an automatic NCAA Tournament bid. The second-seeded Catamounts (25-9) used solid shooting and stingy defense to hold Boston's John Holland to nine points and never trailed.

Atlantic 10

RICHMOND 89, NO. 24 XAVIER 85 (OT): At Atlantic City, N.J., Kevin Anderson scored 27 points, David Gonzalvez added 26 and Richmond rallied to defeat Xavier in overtime in the semifinals. Anderson hit a layup with 3.1 seconds left in regulation to force the second overtime game between the teams in less than two weeks. Gonzalvez hit a 3-pointer to open the extra five minutes in helping third-seeded Richmond (26-7) reach the conference final for the first time since 2002.

NO. 17 TEMPLE 57, RHODE ISLAND 44: At Atlantic City, N.J., Ryan Brooks scored 16 points and No. 17 Temple held Rhode Island to its lowest point total in five years.

Big West

UC SANTA BARBARA 69, LONG BEACH STATE 64: At Anaheim, Calif., Orlando Johnson had 20 points, five rebounds and four assists to lead UC Santa Barbara to the title. James Nunnally added 19 points and six rebounds for the top-seeded Gauchos (20-9), who used their ninth victory in 10 games to qualify for the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2002.