Champ week live blog: How to watch the marquee matchups in Conference USA, the Mountain West and more

UPDATE: 11:33 p.m.

Grand Canyon is still undefeated — in program history! — in WAC Tournament play, and one step closer to an NCAA bid after getting past Utah Valley. The Lopes got up big early with a 14-point halftime lead, then withstood a 20-4 Wolverine run to lock up the win.

Here’s the thing for GCU. They’ve learned to win, especially late in the year, without star production from Josh Braun (though he did have 15 points, 6 rebounds Friday night). Most of this has been because of Alessandro Lever’s breakout season, and the freshman did ave 15 points and seven rebounds against UVU. Keonta Vernon was also there at the end, going on a personal 6-1 run with just under five minutes left.

The Lopes now await the winner of New Mexico State-Seattle, and if Braun continues to break out in the biggest game of his career, GCU could become an especially dangerous team.

- Greg Mitchell

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UPDATE: 10:37 p.m.

Check out this dunk by Northern Colorado’s Jordan Davis. RIP to the Montana defender, and also to the broadcaster who let out a sound similar to that of a dying animal.

This is murder.

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UPDATE: 9:56 p.m.

The score at halftime of the San Diego State-Nevada game is 55-25. No, Nevada is not winning. San Diego State came out scorching on offense and kept their foot on the gas pedal for the entire first half. The Aztec offense shot 19-31 from the floor and connected on seven attempts from behind the arc. That resulted in a measly 1.719 points per possession for SDSU.

An offense of Nevada’s caliber is certainly capable of making it a game, but 30 points is damn near impossible. It looks like we might have our first bid thief coming out of the Mountain West.

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UPDATE: 8:30 p.m.

St. Bonaventure survived a late rally by Richmond to move on to the Atlantic 10 semifinals. The Bonnies were up big in the second half, but a 16-2 run by the Spiders helped them claw back into it as they eventually cut the lead to two. It wasn’t pretty, but the Bonnies iced the game at the line in the closing minutes to win 83-77.

The Bonnies should be safe as an at-large team on Selection Sunday. Given the carnage that’s happened around the bubble, it’s good that they’ve taken care of business. They’ll get the winner of the Saint Louis and Davidson game later tonight.

Here’s a tale of the game in three tweets:

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UPDATE: 6:10 p.m.

WKU defeats ODU 57-49 to set up the Conference USA championship game tomorrow against Marshall. Justin Johnson led the way for WKU against ODU with 19 points and 13 rebounds. Trey Porter finished with 19 points for ODU before fouling out on a technical foul. We’ll have a full recap/championship preview coming tonight.

- Will Harris

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UPDATE: 5:49 p.m.

We are locked in defensive battle here in Frisco. WKU leads ODU 47-44 with 3:35 remaining in the game. WKU has gone cold the last few minutes shooting 1-for-7. The winner of the game is headed to the Conference USA championship to face Marshall.

- Will Harris

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UPDATE: 4:00 p.m.

The Marshall Thundering Herd are headed to the Conference USA championship game after defeating Southern Miss 85-75. Marshall senior Jon Elmore led all scorers with 24 points. Southern Miss ends the 2017-2018 season with a record of 16-18. Marshall will play the winner of ODU and WKU tomorrow.

- Will Harris

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UPDATE: 2:45 p.m.

Jon Elmore leads the way for the Marshall Thundering Herd with 18 points against Southern Miss. Marshall leads the Golden Eagles 56-37 with 15:29 remaining. The winner will head to the Conference USA championship tomorrow facing the winner of Old Dominion and WKU.

- Will Harris

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UPDATE: 1:38 p.m.

So much for a late season malaise for Louisiana.

After falling to last-place, and now coach-less, Little Rock in their regular season finale, the Ragin’ Cajuns have wasted no time whipping up on Texas State. They ran out to a 37-15 halftime lead, swarming Texas State into just 24.0 percent shooting.

At one point the score was an energy-sucking 30-9, and as of this update it’s 42-23.

- Greg Mitchell

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Have you recovered from yesterday’s wild quarterfinal day yet? Because there’s a whole lot more basketball coming your way today, and it’s already started.

The Atlantic 10 and Sun Belt both play their quarters today, but most leagues have moved on to the semis and that means the top-tier teams in each conference are starting to face each other with NCAA Tournament implications.

In Conference USA, whose autobid is there for the taking after Middle Tennessee was upset last night, Old Dominion and Western Kentucky meet with the winner being the likely favorite to take the league crown. The Hilltoppers won both regular season contests between the two teams, but the Monarchs have won nine of their last 10.

In the Mountain West, Nevada escaped a scare from UNLV and the Wolf Pack will face a San Diego State team tonight that knocked them off less than a week ago. Like in C-USA, the Mountain West saw a huge upset yesterday as well with Boise State going down. That means either Nevada or San Diego State will face the winner of Utah State-New Mexico in the title game.

Here’s how to watch all the action on Friday:

Atlantic 10 Quarterfinals:

Time: Noon, 2:30, 6, 8:30
TV: NBC Sports
Twitter follows: @AustinOBrown, @morrisoncrying

Sun Belt Quarterfinals:

Time: 12:30, 3, 6, 8:30
TV/Stream: ESPN3
Twitter follow: @gregpmitchell

Conference USA Semifinals:

Time: 1:30, 4
TV: CBS Sports
Twitter follow: @willharris74

Southland Semifinals:

Time: 6 p.m., 8:30 p.m.
TV/Stream: ESPN3
Twitter follow: @cam_lopez8

MEAC Semifinals:

Time: 6 p.m., 8:30 p.m.
TV/Stream: ESPN3
Twitter follow: @primetimemitch

MAC Semifinals:

Time: 6:30, 9
TV/Stream: CBS Sports/CBSSports.com
Twitter follow: @andyevans16

WAC Semifinals:

Time: 9, 11:30
TV/Stream: ESPN3
Twitter follow: @gregpmitchell

Mountain West Semifinals:

Time: 9, 11:30
TV: CBS Sports
Twitter follow: @ChrisSchutte3

Big West Semifinals:

Time: 9:30, Midnight
TV/Stream: ESPN3
Twitter follow: @kylecajero