March 3, 2007

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (AP) - Andy Wicke and Andrew Preston each scored 18 points and Belmont won a second straight Atlantic Sun Conference tournament championship and NCAA bid by beating East Tennessee State 94-67 on Saturday.

The Bruins (23-9) earned their school's first trip to the NCAA tournament last year and lost to eventual national runner-up UCLA in the first round.

ETSU (24-9) won the Atlantic Sun regular-season title and will play in the NIT. The Buccaneers couldn't keep up with Belmont, a small private school in Nashville, on their homecourt.

Reserve Justin Hare, the tournament MVP two years in a row, scored 17 points for Belmont and Boomer Herndon added 10. Wicke made 5-of-11 3-pointers. Preston also grabbed 10 rebounds and went 8-of-12 at the foul line.

ETSU's Courtney Pigram, the conference player of the year, scored 21 points while Andrew Reed added 13 and Mike Smith had 11.

The Bruins built a big lead in the first half by shooting 12-of-19 from long range. They had averaged a league-high 8.65 3-pointers a game and finished the game with 14.

It was tied at 8 when Belmont had a 9-0 run - all 3-pointers - and began to pull away.

Afterward, the Buccaneers got as close as seven in the first half, but Belmont stretched its lead to 49-30 at halftime after Hare's desperation 3 at the buzzer went in.

The Bruins' lead hovered around 20 most of the second half and dipped as low as 14 with 4:52 left after Pigram made consecutive baskets, but ETSU could not sustain a long rally.

As the clock wound down, the Belmont pep band chanted "We're going dancing!"

Belmont, most known because of its music school, had one of its biggest supporters at the game - country music star Vince Gill.

The team celebrated by mugging for the television cameras after receiving the glass tournament trophy.

Including last year's regular season and tournament, Belmont has won eight straight in the Memorial Center, ETSU's former indoor football dome stadium.

The Bucs have been to the NCAAs seven times, the last as members of the Southern Conference in 2004. They joined the Atlantic Sun after the school folded its football program.