Penn clinches tournament berth

Pennsylvania defeated Yale, 86-58, Friday night at Philadelphia to claim its third consecutive Ivy League championship and become the first team to clinch a automatic berth into the NCAA tournament.

The Quakers (20-8, 11-1), who won their eighth game in a row, won the Ivy League title for the fourth time in five years.

Since there is no conference tournament in the Ivy League, the regular-season champion earns one of the 31 automatic berths to the 65-team field.

The title is the Quakers’ first under Coach Glen Miller, the former Brown coach who replaced longtime Penn coach Fran Dunphy, who now coaches crosstown-rival Temple.

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Rather than worry about the NCAA selection process, No. 11 Southern Illinois is sticking to what it can control.

The Salukis (26-5) won their 12th in a row, 71-59 over Drake in the quarterfinals of the Missouri Valley Conference tournament at St. Louis.

Southern Illinois will next play Bradley. Will Franklin made an off-balance three-point basket with 2.7 seconds left to give the Braves (21-11) a 51-48 victory over Northern Iowa.

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Gonzaga reserve Theo Davis has been charged with misdemeanor possession of marijuana stemming from his arrest with starting center Josh Heytvelt after a traffic stop in Cheney, Wash., on Feb. 9.

Cheney County prosecutor Julie McKay said that Davis will be mailed a citation and court summons. Davis, a freshman who did not play this season because of shoulder surgery, was a passenger in a sport-utility vehicle Heytvelt was driving.

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Utah Coach Ray Giacoletti will leave at the end of the season, the school announced. The Utes (11-17) are mired in their worst season in decades and are 6-9 in the Mountain West Conference going into today’s game at Brigham Young.