Mississippi State making noise in SEC

Barry Stewart scored 14 points and Mississippi State advanced to its second consecutive Southeastern Conference Tournament final with a 62-52 win over No. 20 Vanderbilt Saturday in Nashville, Tenn.

Dee Bost, Phil Turner and Jarvis Varnado each had 11 points for Mississippi State (23-10), which will face No. 2 Kentucky in Sunday's final.

Jermaine Beal scored 11 for Vanderbilt (24-8).

Kentucky 74, Tennessee 45: DeMarcus Cousins had 19 points and 15 rebounds and No. 2 Kentucky (31-2) tagged No. 15 Tennessee (25-8) with its worst loss under coach Bruce Pearl.

Kansas 72, Kansas State 64: Marcus Morris had 18 points, Tyrel Reed 15 and No. 1 Kansas (32-2) held off No. 9 Kansas State (26-7) down the stretch in the Big 12 Tournament final in Kansas City, Mo.

Georgia Tech 57, North Carolina State 54: Derrick Favors had 17 points and eight rebounds, and Georgia Tech (22-11) held off the Wolfpack (19-15) in the ACC semifinals in Greensboro, N.C.

Duke 77, Miami 74: Kyle Singler scored 27 points and Jon Scheyer had eight of his 16 during the go-ahead 15-0 run early in the second half for No. 3 Duke (28-5).

San Diego State 55, UNLV 45: Kawhi Leonard scored 16 points, grabbed a career-best 21 rebounds and sank all eight of his free throws in the final two minutes as San Diego State (25-8) won the Mountain West's automatic bid in Las Vegas. The Runnin' Rebels (25-8) are expected to join San Diego State, No. 8 New Mexico and No. 14 BYU in the NCAA field announced Sunday.

Vermont 83, Boston U. 70: Marcus Blakely had 24 points, 18 rebounds and dominated the glass down the stretch as Vermont (25-9) earned its first NCAA bid since 2005 in the America East final in Burlington.

Ohio 81, Akron 75: Freshman D.J. Cooper scored 23 points and made three big plays in overtime as Ohio, the Mid-American Conference's No. 9 seed, grabbed the automatic bid in Cleveland.

Morgan State 68, South Carolina State 61: Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tournament MVP Kevin Thompson had 18 points and 10 rebounds and Reggie Holmes had 17 points for the top-seeded Bears (27-9) overcame 20 turnovers in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Sam Houston State 64, Stephen F. Austin 48: Gilberto Clavell scored 21 points and Sam Houston (25-7) led all the way in the Southland Conference final in Katy, Texas.

- AP