First NCAA Tournament bid on the line: Ohio Valley Conference Heavyweight Bout

It’s a unique feat when the top two seeded teams in a conference tournament make to the finals, but it’s been accomplished at the Ohio Valley Conference Championships. Co-champions Tennessee State and Morehead State clash tonight in an OVC ‘heavyweight bout’. 

The winner heads to the NCAA Tournament and the runnerup has a legitimate shot at some form of postseason play. 

Theses OVC ‘heavyweights’ threw numerous body-blows and haymakers during their first two meetings. 

Expect a lot of offense in this one. Tennessee State prevailed 105-100 in an overtime game in Nashville and Morehead State secured a 94-86 victory in Morehead, Kentucky. These ‘sluggers’ amassed 385 combined points in the first two meetings. 

TSU Stars

The ‘Tiger Twins’ Aaron Nkrumah and Travis Harper II are the OVC’s dynamic duo. They’ve been two of the OVC’s top three scorers all season. Harper is the league’s best shooter and Nkrumah, the OVC's 'Player of the Year' is explosive offensively and the conference’s best perimeter defender, 

Why ‘Tiger Twins’? They are both 6’6 and electric scorers and for a while, even the TSU website had Nkrumah’s face on Harper’s bio and Harper’s on Nkrumah’s. Even now our friends at one national website have their faces inverted. During the Tigers’ win over Morehead, Nkrumah scored 30 points. In the loss, Harper netted 30. 

They give opposing defenses fits.

Head coach Nolan Smith has a true floor general in Dante Harris and enough size in Jalen Pitre and Antoine Lorick III to protect rim and sustain possessions with offensive rebounds. 

Morehead Leaders 

George Marshall was the Eagles’ first-team, all-conference representative and Jon Carroll landed on the second team. Marshall is a holdover from the Preston Spradlin days at Morehead and has shined all season. 

The 6’4 senior finished the conference season eighth in scoring (15.1 ppg), third in free throw percentage and sixth in made, three-pointers. Carroll finished as the OVC’s third leading rebounder (8.3 per game) and averaged over eleven points-per-game. 

Chase Dawson and Josiah LeGree are very capable backcourt distributors. The sophomore guards each finished among the league leaders in assists and LeGree scored 25 points in the Eagles’ win over TSU. Dawson hit Friday night's most critical basket to secure the Eagles' win over Southeast Missouri.

Tennessee State has won five straight games and eight of its last nine. The only loss was the decision in Morehead. Jonathan Mattox’s team has won eight consecutive contests. 

Each of these coaches are finalists for the Ben Jobe Award and were the OVC's 'Co-Coaches of the Year'. This is the way the tournament should have shaken out, and here we are.

Morehead State and Tennessee State are this year’s OVC heavyweights and they meet tonight at 9 pm on ESPN2. Find time to watch these two slug it out.