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OVC Champion Clinches First-Ever March Madness Berth

The Ohio Valley Conference will have a different March Madness representative for the fourth consecutive year.

Gavin Dorsey

Feb 5, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; A rack of basketballs with the March Madness logo before that start of the UCLA Bruins - Ohio State Buckeyes game at Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom. Mandatory Credit: Robert Hanashiro-Imagn Images
Feb 5, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; A rack of basketballs with the March Madness logo before that start of the UCLA Bruins - Ohio State Buckeyes game at Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom. Mandatory Credit: Robert Hanashiro-Imagn Images / Robert Hanashiro-Imagn Images

For the first time in program history, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville will play in the Division I NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.

SIUE earned an automatic bid to March Madness after the Cougars defeated Southeast Missouri State, 69-48, in the OVC Championship on Saturday night.

The No. 2-seeded Cougars handled No. 1-seeded SEMO, outscoring the Redhawks by 11 in the first half and 10 in the second. Senior guard Ray'Sean Taylor led the team with 20 points and seven rebounds on a night that he broke the program record for career points.

Southeast Missouri State cut the deficit to 41-40 halfway through the second half, but the Cougars ended the game on a 28-8 run to put the Redhawks away.

SIUE played in Division II from 1969 to 2008, when the team made the leap to Division I. The Cougars joined the Ohio Valley Conference in 2010 and did not have a winning season until 2022-23, head coach Brian Barone's fourth year at the helm.

Over the last three years, the Cougars are a combined 58-41, including 22-11 this season.

With SIUE ending its 17-season drought, there are now 37 eligible Division I men's basketball teams that have never made it to March Madness.

In Division II, the Cougars took five trips to the NCAA Tournament, winning at least one game in four of them. During SIUE's most recent 2006 berth, the Cougars reached the Elite Eight.

SIUE will find out its March Madness seeding on Selection Sunday, scheduled to take place on March 16.

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Gavin Dorsey
GAVIN DORSEY

Gavin Dorsey is the Lead Writer for Northwestern Wildcats On SI and covers a handful of other teams in the On SI network, including the Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Guardians, Houston Texans and Ohio State Buckeyes. Before joining On SI in February 2025, he wrote for the Star Tribune and Inside NU while broadcasting college sports for both radio and television. Dorsey is a graduate of Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism, where he also studied psychology. In his free time, he enjoys running and being outdoors. Dorsey is currently a freelance writer for the Associated Press, covering Chicago area sports teams.

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