Fiu Dances Into Ncaa At 11-18

Florida International won the Trans America Athletic Conference Saturday and will enter the NCAA tournament with an 11-18 record, the worst since 1961.

Matt Tchir scored 17 points and James Mazyck added 11 points and 10 rebounds to lead Florida International over Mercer 68-57 in the championship game of the conference tournament.

That earned FIU an automatic NCAA berth and made the Golden Panthers the losingest team in the tournament since George Washington got in in 1961 with a record of 9-16. The last team with a losing record in the tournament was East Carolina (13-16) in 1993.

By beating Mercer for the first time in three meetings this season, FIU became the first eighth-seeded team ever to win the TAAC tourney in its 16-year history.

The Golden Panthers succeeded in slowing the pace and prevented Mercer (10-9, 15-14) from gathering the second-half momentum that had carried the Bears to victories over Centenary and Georgia State in the first two rounds of the tournament. In attempting to control the ball and the clock, FIU chalked up 16 assists and had only five turnovers, while the Bears had 16 turnovers.