BALTIMORE - Carl Baptiste scored a career-high 24 points, including a go-ahead layup with 10 seconds left, and top-seeded Delaware squeezed past William & Mary 75-74 Monday night to win the Colonial Athletic Association championship and earn a berth in the NCAA tournament for the first time in 15 years.

Delaware (25-9) will be making its fifth trip to the NCAA Tournament. The Hens, who previously qualified in 1992, 1993, 1998 and 1999, were making their first appearance in a league championship since losing to Hofstra in the 2001 America East tournament.

Despite playing in the CAA championship game for the third time in the last seven seasons, William & Mary(20-12) remains in search of its first NCAA tournament appearance.

Along with Army, St. Francis (N.Y.), Northwestern and The Citadel, the Tribe are one of five original Division I members never to have made the NCAA Tournament.

METRO ATLANTIC

Manhattan wins title

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - George Beamon scored 16 points Monday night and Manhattan held off rival Iona 71-68 for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title.

Beamon was one of four players to score at least 10 points for Manhattan (25-7), which earned its first NCAA bid in a decade.

A.J. English had 15 points for Iona (22-10), which had five players with at least 10 points.

Manhattan led by as many as 10 points in the second half. SOUTHERN Cochran leads Wofford

ASHEVILLE, N.C. - Karl Cochran scored 23 points, and Wofford beat Western Carolina 56-53 to capture the Southern Conference championship.

Cochran, the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, was 8 of 16 from the field and had five three-pointers for Wofford (20-12).

Fifth-seeded Western Carolina (19-15) was led by Brandon Boggs with 17 points.

Men’s Division I automatic bids SCHOOL CONFERENCE Coastal Carolina Big South Delaware Colonial Athletic Eastern Kentucky Ohio Valley Harvard Ivy Manhattan Metro Atlantic Mercer Atlantic Sun Wichita State Missouri Valley Wofford Southern

Sports, Pages 19 on 03/11/2014