Nobody will be heading into the NCAA tournament with more momentum than Southern Methodist.
The No. 12 Mustangs won their 16th consecutive game Sunday, taking the American Athletic Conference championship with a 71-56 victory over No. 15 Cincinnati in Hartford, Conn.
Sterling Brown scored 18 points on 6-for-11 shooting. Tournament MVP Simi Ojeleye added 14 points, Jarrey Foster had 13 and Ben Moore scored 12. It was the second AAC title in three years for SMU (30-4), which missed last year's postseason under NCAA sanctions.
"Our confidence is very high," Brown said. "We just go out there and do what we do."
Jarron Cumberland had 14 points to lead Cincinnati (29-5).
Princeton 71, Yale 59: Myles Stephens had a career-high 23 points and eight rebounds and the Tigers (23-6) won the inaugural Ivy League tournament, beating the Bulldogs (18-11) in Philadelphia to clinch their first NCAA tournament berth since 2011.
Princeton won its 19th game in a row and didn't lose in Ivy play this season — which, in any other year, would have been more than enough to secure the league's automatic bid. But this year, the Ivy League held a four-team tournament, its first since the league was formed in 1956.
Rhode Island 70, Virginia Commonwealth 63: E.C. Matthews finished with 19 points, including a decisive shot with 55 seconds to play that lifted Rhode Island (24-9) over VCU (26-8) for the Atlantic 10 championship in Pittsburgh and the Rams' first NCAA tournament berth since 1999.
