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Enis scores 19, South Florida wins AAC Tournament, clinches 1st NCAA Tournament berth since 2012

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Wes Enis scored 19 points on Sunday to help top-seeded South Florida beat No. 2 seed Wichita State 70-55 to win the American Athletic Conference Tournament and clinch a berth in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012.

South Florida (25-8) has won 11 in a row and secured its first AAC Tournament crown. The Bulls have won back-to-back conference regular-season titles.

Izaiyah Nelson had 13 points, six rebound, three steals and two blocks for USF and Josh Omojafo scored 10.

CJ Brown threw an alley-oop to Nelson for a dunk that made it 10-8 a little more than six minutes into the game and the Bulls led the rest of the way.

Wichita State (22-11) twice in the second half trimmed its deficit to a point before Isaiah Jones and Enis hit back-to-back 3s to spark a 14-4 spurt that gave South Florida a 59-45 lead with 6 1/2 minutes to play.

Dillon Battie led the Shockers with 15 points and Will Berg added 10 points, six rebounds and three blocks. Kenyon Giles, the team’s leading scorer this season (19.7 per game), finished with five points on 2-of-11 shooting, 1 of 7 from 3-point range.

Wichita State had its seven-game win streak — which dated to a 66-58 home loss to the Bulls on Feb. 11 — snapped.

Up next

Wichita State: Awaits a potential postseason invitation.

South Florida: Will be a No. 11 seed and plays Thursday against sixth-seeded Louisville in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

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UNC-Wilmington women’s basketball coach says she’s fortunate to be alive after nearly drowning

WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) — UNC Wilmington women's basketball coach Nicole Woods says she's lucky to be alive after being caught in a rip current while trying to rescue her 8-year-old nephew during a family beach outing last week. Woods told WECT-TV she took her two children as well as her niece and nephew, both 8, to Wrightsville Beach on May 21. Her nephew waded into the Atlantic Ocean when a wave knocked him under the water. Woods says she jumped into help him, only to have the current start dragging both of them out to sea. Woods, 41, pushed her nephew above the surface so he could breathe before she lost consciousness. A rescue team pulled Woods and her nephew to shore. Paramedics performed CPR on Woods, then used a defibrillator to revive her. Woods says she spent at least 24 hours on a ventilator before being able to breathe on her own.
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