WILD FINAL NIGHT SETS OVC PAIRINGS; GOVS' UPSET WIN SAVES TRIP TO CAPE

Things were as crazy as expected Saturday night on the final date of the Ohio Valley Conference regular-season basketball schedule.

The pairings for the OVC Tournament weren't decided until all the final buzzers had sounded around the league.

When the dust had cleared, Middle Tennessee State and Austin Peay had joined league champion Murray State and runnerup Southeast Missouri State University as teams earning first-round tourney home games.

Murray State's surprising 80-72 loss at Austin Peay allowed the Governors to move all the way up from what would have been a No. 7 seed -- and a road trip to Southeast -- to the No. 4 spot and a home date.

While Murray State (16-2) and Southeast (15-3) were already locked in to the first and second spots entering Saturday's action, just about everything else was up for grabs.

When everything was tallied up, Middle Tennessee, Austin Peay, Morehead State and Tennessee State all tied for third with 9-9 records. Eastern Illinois and Tennessee Tech tied for seventh at 8-10.

By virtue of tiebreakers, Middle Tennessee and Austin Peay earned first-round home games.

"I think it was about as wild as everybody expected," said Southeast coach Gary Garner.

So Tuesday night's opening-round pairings look like this: No. 8 seed Tennessee Tech at No. 1 Murray State; No. 7 Eastern Illinois at No. 2 Southeast Missouri; No. 6 Tennessee State at No. 3 Middle Tennessee; No. 5 Morehead State at No. 4 Austin Peay.

Southeast will face the team it drubbed Saturday; the Indians routed the Panthers 92-70 at the Show Me Center. And now Eastern Illinois is making a return trip to Cape Girardeau.

"I really hoped we wouldn't have to play Eastern Illinois again after having just played them," Garner said. "But there's nothing we can do about it."

Other Saturday results saw Middle Tennessee beat Eastern Kentucky 72-65, Morehead State hold off Tennessee Tech 78-74 and Tennessee State clip Tennessee-Martin 66-57 in overtime.

Tennessee-Martin (5-13) wound up ninth in the league while Eastern Kentucky (2-16) finished 10th. Only the top eight squads qualified for the postseason tourney.

On the women's side, Tennessee Tech, Middle Tennessee and Tennessee-Martin all wound up 14-4 and in a three-way tie for first place. Tennessee Tech gets the No. 1 seed for the tournament, with Middle Tennessee No. 2 and Tennessee-Martin No. 3.

Southeast (13-5) finished fourth, followed by Murray State (9-9), Eastern Kentucky (8-10), Tennessee State (7-11) and Austin Peay (5-13). Morehead State and Eastern Illinois tied for last at 5-13 and did not make the tourney.

Tuesday night's first-round pairings feature No. 8 Austin Peay at No. 1 Tennessee Tech; No. 7 Tennessee State at No. 2 Middle Tennessee; No. 6 Eastern Kentucky at No. 3 Tennessee-Martin; and No. 5 Murray State at No. 4 Southeast.

Saturday's regular-season finales saw Southeast beat Eastern Illinois 101-86, Tennessee Tech bomb Morehead State 87-63, Middle Tennessee down Eastern Kentucky 81-71, Tennessee-Martin upend Tennessee State 67-59 and Austin Peay surprise Murray State 72-68.

All the winners of Tuesday's first-round games will advance to this weekend's OVC Final Four at the Nashville (Tenn.) Arena. Women's semifinals are set for 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Saturday, with the men playing at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Sunday's men's championship game will begin at 1:30 p.m. and ESPN will televise it. The women's final is set for 4:30 p.m. and that game will be carried on Fox Sports South.

OVC Tournament

First Round

Tuesday

(Seeds in parentheses)

MEN

(8) Tennessee Tech at (1) Murray St., 7 p.m.

(7) Eastern Illinois at (2) SE MISSOURI, 7:30 p.m.

(6) Tennessee St. at (3) Middle Tenn., 7:30 p.m.

(5) Morehead St. at (4) Austin Peay, 7 p.m.

WOMEN

(8) Austin Peay at (1) Tennessee Tech, 7 p.m.

(7) Tennessee St. at (2) Middle Tenn., 5:30 p.m.

(6) Eastern Kentucky at (3) Tenn.-Martin, 7 p.m.

(5) Murray St. at (4) SE MISSOURI, 5:30 p.m.