After five wins in five days, Georgia Southern finally ran into a roadblock at the final step.

Thomas Dowd's 23 points and 13 rebounds lifted Troy to a 77-61 win over Georgia Southern on Monday night to claim the championship of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament. The Trojans are headed to the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year.

Georgia Southern, the No. 10 seed in the conference tournament, needed to win six games in six days to earn the Sun Belt's automatic bid to the NCAAs. The Eagles nearly pulled it off.

Furman also earned an automatic bid to the Big Dance on Monday, beating East Tennessee State to win the Southern Conference Tournament.

Bubble watch

Santa Clara took a big step toward its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1996, beating Saint Mary's 76-71 in the West Coast Conference semifinals Monday night. It was the 600th victory for coach Herb Sendek, who has also taken Miami (Ohio), NC State and Arizona State to the NCAAs.

Santa Clara can earn an automatic bid by beating Gonzaga in the WCC final, but the Broncos probably don't need it.

The experts say

Last four in according to ...

ESPN: Santa Clara, SMU, Virginia Commonwealth, Auburn.

CBS Sports: Missouri, VCU, SMU, Stanford.

First four out according to ...

ESPN: Indiana, Virginia Tech, Stanford, New Mexico.

CBS Sports: California, Auburn, Oklahoma, New Mexico.

(These updates came before Santa Clara's win Monday night.)

Automatic bids

Here's who has claimed an automatic bid to this year's men's NCAA Tournament: Long Island University (NEC), Tennessee State (OVC), Northern Iowa (MVC), High Point (Big South), Queens (ASUN), North Dakota State (Summit), Troy (Sun Belt), Furman (SoCon).

Furman's last appearance was in 2023, when the Paladins were a No. 13 seed and beat Virginia 68-67 in a wild ending in which the Cavaliers turned the ball over and JP Pegues made a 3-pointer with 2.4 seconds left.

Up next

Gonzaga plays in the WCC Tournament final for the 29th consecutive time Tuesday night. That streak will end next season when the Bulldogs join the Pac-12.

Other automatic bids at stake include the Horizon League (Wright State vs. Detroit), Coastal Athletic Association (Hofstra vs. Monmouth) and Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (Merrimack vs. Siena).

It's also the first day of the ACC and Big 12 tournaments, with bubble teams SMU, Virginia Tech, Stanford and Cincinnati in action.

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