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The Ohio Valley Conference Championships will be held at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana for a third straight year. The tournament’s first round will begin on Wednesday, March 4th and the title game will be played Saturday, March 7th. Two games will be played each day until the final day.
Some first-round and quarterfinal games will be available for viewing via live stream on ESPN+ while the semifinals will be on ESPNU. The championship can be seen on ESPN2.
March 4 (ESPN+)
Game 1: No. 5 Tennessee State 74-67 over No. 8 Morehead State
Game 2: No. 6 Eastern Illinois 67-61 over No. 7 Jacksonville State
March 5 (ESPN+)
Game 3: No. 5 Tennessee State 48-58 No. 4 Eastern Kentucky
Game 4: No. 6 Eastern Illinois 65-76 No. 3 Austin Peay
March 6 (ESPNU)
Game 5: No. 4 Eastern Kentucky 50-60 No. 1 Belmont
Game 6: No. 3 Austin Peay 61-73 No. 2 Murray State
March 7 (ESPN2)
Championship: No. 2 Murray State 75-76 No. 1 Belmont, 7:00 p.m.
The Murray State Racers became the first team to repeat as conference tourney champs since 1998-1999 and could three-peat. The Racers don’t have now-Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant, but does have one of the conference’s best scorers in Tevin Brown, who is averaging 18.5 points per game. Only Belmont has topped the Racers in conference play this year, and they are the No. 1 seed. Both teams played in last year’s conference championship and made the NCAA tournament, but it’s unlikely that two Ohio Valley teams make the cut this year. Austin Peay has a shot at the regular season conference title, but ranks in the triple digits in both NET and KenPom.