COLLEGE BASKETBALL ROUNDUP : Notre Dame Gets Aced Out by Evansville

Notre Dame was virtually eliminated from an NCAA tournament berth Monday night when the Irish lost to Evansville, 74-56.

Parrish Casebier scored 31 of his 41 points in the first half to lead the Aces, who finished the regular season 22-5 and put themselves in strong contention for an NCAA bid.

Without the victory, Evansville--the regular-season Midwestern Collegiate Conference champion--had little hope for making the NCAA field unless it could win the upcoming MCC tournament in Cincinnati.

Evansville’s swarming man-to-man defense kept the Irish (14-14) off-balance the entire game.

In tournaments:

COLONIAL ATHLETIC--Old Dominion earned a trip to the NCAA tournament by defeating James Madison, 78-73, in the the Colonial Athletic Assn. tournament final Monday at Richmond, Va.

A first-year CAA member with a first-year coach, Oliver Purnell, the Monarchs (15-14) extended their longest winning streak of the season to five games.

ATLANTIC 10--West Virginia made only 17 of 49 shots (34.7%), but that was good enough to beat Temple, 44-41, in an Atlantic 10 tournament semifinal at Philadelphia. Temple shot even worse, making 14 of 54 (29.9%).

In Thursday’s tournament final, West Virginia faces No. 22 Massachusetts, a 78-67 winner over Rhode Island.

Harper Williams scored 20 points to lead Massachusetts (27-4) over Rhode Island (20-9).

METRO ATLANTIC--LaSalle earned its fourth NCAA tournament bid in five years by beating Manhattan, 77-76, in the final of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament at Albany, N.Y. Manhattan was leading by a point and focusing on LaSalle stars Jack Hurd and Randy Woods when Bron Holland made a jump shot from the foul line with 11 seconds to play to provide the winning margin.

Holland’s shot capped a 6-0 rally for La Salle (20-10) in the final 1:07 and denied Manhattan (23-8) its first trip to the NCAAs since 1958.

MISSOURI VALLEY--Freshmen Johnny Murdock and Tim Axley, a reserve, made clutch free throws in the final seconds as Southwest Missouri State beat Tulsa, 71-68, at St. Louis for the Missouri Valley Conference tournament title.

Southwest Missouri (23-7) earned an automatic NCAA tournament berth, its fifth in six years.

MID-CONTINENT--David Olson scored 23 points including a tournament-record six three-pointers, as Eastern Illinois upset top-seeded Wisconsin Green Bay, 75-65, in a Mid-Continent Conference semifinal game at Cleveland.

In tonight’s final, the Panthers (16-13) will meet Illinois Chicago (16-13), which beat Cleveland State, 83-59.

Eastern Illinois avenged two regular-season losses to Wisconsin Green Bay (25-4).

Tony Bennett led Wisconsin Green Bay with 20 points.

EAST COAST--Towson State won its third consecutive East Coast Conference tournament title by defeating Hofstra, 69-61. Chuck Lightening scored 22 points to lead the Tigers (17-13).