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Evansville, IN -- The first official ticket into the 2018 NCAA Tournament has been punched. Representing the Ohio Valley Conference will be the Belmont Bruins.
The Bruins defeated the Tennessee-Martin Skyhawks today 63-56 in overtime in the conference tournament championship behind the play of Sally McCabe who had a double-double and Darby Maggard’s heroics.
This is the third-consecutive year Belmont has represented the OVC in the Big Dance after winning the conference tournament.
Number one-seeded Belmont survived being upset, thanks to Darby Maggard who hit the game-tying triple with 4.5 seconds left in regulation. Tennessee-Martin had a chance to win, but, Belmont’s defense forced a five-second count. Even though the Bruins did not score on its last attempt, Maggard’s three gave them another five minutes of play.
Once overtime hit, the Bruins were even more locked in, hungry to punch its ticket to the tournament. With 40 seconds left, Maggard hit a dagger three to seal the win for Belmont.