I am overdue on reporting the results of the 2007 O'Reilly Ohio Valley Conference Mens and Womens Basketball Tournament, so here are the results. EKU and Southeast Missouri would eventually win the tournaments. All games were held at the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville, Tennessee.
MENS SEMI-FINALS
#1 AUSTIN PEAY 65, #5 SAMFORD 55
The Governors had to fight off another opponent, this time the Samford Bulldogs, to advance to the OVC Championship. Peay led 35-30 at the half, but the Bulldogs would go on a 12-0 run to take a 42-35 lead with 11:18 left on the clock. Peay then had an 11-2 run of their own, taking a 48-44 lead with 7:11 left. The Govs held on the rest of the way to advance to Saturday's championship.
#2 EASTERN KENTUCKY 57, #3 TENNESSEE TECH 54
This was a closely fought contest which the Colonels would eventually find a way to win. EKU held off the Golden Eagles, who fought fiercely in a losing effort. TTU would hold six-point leads twice through the first half and went to the break up 27-25. EKU came out taking its lead with not even three minutes into the final half's clock, and would hold a tight grasp on that lead all the way through. The Colonels held a 47-38 lead with 8:40 to go in regulation, but Tech would fight back. The Golden Eagles would hit four from the charity stripe late to cut the EKU lead to just three with over a minute left. With a half-minute left, TTU put in a shot to cut the score Colonels lead to one. Eastern Kentucky finally would hold off Tennessee Tech to advance to the championship against Austin Peay Saturday.
MEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP
#2 EASTERN KENTUCKY 63, #1 AUSTIN PEAY 62
In an upset bid, the regular season champ Govs were stunned by the Colonels as Eastern Kentucky claimed the 2006-07 OVC Championship. Peay tried to deal with cold hands, as they failed to get a shot in the bucket for nearly 10 minutes in the second half. The Govs held a one-point lead with just seconds on the clock, when EKU's Josh Taylor found an opening and drove to the basket and put up Eastern's winning points with just 2.9 left on the clock. Those two points were Taylor's only points of the game. EKU will now wait for all the other conference tournaments to finish and will get ready to play in the NCAA Tournament. Austin Peay will wait and hope for an NIT bid.
WOMEN'S SEMI-FINALS
#1 SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 57, #4 SAMFORD 51
The top-ranked Redhawks continued their bid for a repeat against the Bulldogs. Sonya Daugherty led SEMO with 21 points. Veronica Pike led Samford with 18 points and Alex Munday chipped in 15 points in the losing effort. SEMO now heads to their second-consecutive OVC Championship game.
#2 MURRAY STATE 66, #6 UT-MARTIN 65 (OT)
The Murray Racers controlled the tempo from the get-go, leading 18-6 with 10:59 on the clock in the first half. MSU had as much as a 24-12 lead, but Nicole Holman put in consecutive three shots to bring Martin to within three, down 24-21. Murray held a 26-24 advantage going into the break at the half.
Murray still controlled the advantage, leading by 38-33 with 15:48 in regulation. Martin wasn't ready to die, however, and found themselves on an 8-0 run, taking a 41-38 lead. MSU soon got back in the swing, but the lead would wobble between both teams until regulation would end with an 57-all knotted score.
Martin hit two charity shots to take the early overtime lead, and would lead most of the way until the Racers began to fight back with 2:25 left on the overtime clock. Murray would face a struggle the rest of the way, but held on to a victory and will face top-ranked SEMO in the women's championship on Saturday.
WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP
#1 SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 62, #2 MURRAY STATE 60
The Redhawks survived a surprisingly close matchup against the Racers to become the OVC's women's representative in the NCAA Tournament for the second-straight season. SEMO's Lachelle Lyles made the layup with 6.5 seconds left to put the 'Hawks up by the final margin.
MSU lagged by 16 points at their worst, and was behind by double digits through most of the second half. The Racers came back to tie things up at 60 with 16.7 seconds left, but just could not complete an upset bid. Murray will now return to Kentucky and prepare for next season.
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