You expected to see the Belmont Bruins in the 2011 Atlantic Sun title game. They tore through the conference in the regular season, are 3-0 in A-Sun championship games, and could set the record tonight for most wins in conference history. So no surprise here. But the UNF Ospreys?
At 6:30 pm ET on ESPN2, the toast of the conference gets a challenge from North Florida, who’ve pulled off consecutive upsets just to stick around Macon. The Ospreys topped two-time defending champ ETSU 59-55 last night on the strength of a David Jeune double-double, one night after beating No. 3 seed Jacksonville 68-64.
Belmont had a scare of its own, leading the hometown Mercer Bears by only three with minutes left, but was able to pull off a 80-72 victory as Jordan Campbell pitched in 17 points.
Winner gets an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. A close loss by Belmont wouldn’t rule out tourney trips for both teams, but the Bruins won’t want to take any chances.