Kentucky coach John Calipari has been telling anyone who will listen that he does not like conference tournaments. Sunday's Southeastern Conference final is not about to change his mind. The top-ranked Wildcats collapsed late in a 71-64 loss to Vanderbilt at New Orleans, ending their 24-game winning streak. Kentucky (32-2) won two of its three games in three days at New Orleans but never led by double digits and trailed in each second half. Vanderbilt (24-10), playing in its first SEC tournament final since 1951, the year of its only other conference title, trailed, 62-55, with 5 minutes 23 seconds left but rallied with a 16-2 run over the final five minutes. Despite the loss, Kentucky was given a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Festus Ezeli had 17 points for Vanderbilt, which pushed ahead in the final minutes with a few timely shots, but mostly with suffocating defense. After Anthony Davis's free throw gave the Wildcats a 7-point lead, they started settling for jump shots, taking nine from that point and missing them all, including five from 3-point range. Michigan St. wins Big Ten: Trailing by 8 points with about 14 minutes left, No. 8 Michigan State mounted a 10-0 run to take the lead for good in a 68-64 victory over No. 7 Ohio State in the Big Ten tournament final at Indianapolis. “That was an epic battle,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. He added: “I think what's making me feel good is we're standing toe to toe with most people we're playing right now.” The win showed that Michigan State was the undisputed best team in the Big Ten, a conference that had three regular-season champions: the Spartans, Michigan and Ohio State, which beat Michigan State a week ago to force the three-way tie. Florida St. wins ACC: Michael Snaer, the tournament most valuable player, scored 18 points, and 17th-ranked Florida State used a barrage of 3-pointers to beat No. 4 North Carolina, 85-82, in the Atlantic Coast Conference final at Atlanta. Florida State (24-9), which joined the ACC in 1991, won the conference title for the first time, showing that its 33-point blowout of the Tar Heels during the regular season was no fluke. St. Bonaventure wins A-10: Andrew Nicholson, the Atlantic 10 player of the year, had 26 points, 14 rebounds and 8 blocked shots as St. Bonaventure (20-11) won its first title in the conference by holding off Xavier, 67-56, at Atlantic City. Da'Quan Cook and Charlon Kloff added 9 points apiece for the fourth-seeded Bonnies (20-11), who are in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2000. The championship is a rebirth for St. Bonaventure, which used an ineligible player in 2003 and then allowed its players to boycott the final two games after the conference suspended the player. Tu Holloway had 17 points and Mark Lyons added 16 for third-seeded Xavier (21-12).
