INDIANAPOLIS — Trey Townsend scored a career-high 38 points and made a number of key plays down the stretch as Oakland earned its first NCAA tournament bid since 2011 with an 83-76 win over Milwaukee in the Horizon League championship game Tuesday night.
Townsend had 27 points in the second half, 16 in the last six minutes and 7 in the last three minutes. His 38 points were the most in a Horizon League tournament championship game since at least 1996.
Townsend’s turnaround jumper with 2:35 left gave the top-seed Grizzlies a 72-70 lead. He then intercepted a pass and followed his own miss with a putback for a 74-70 lead with two minutes left.
Blake Lampman made two free throws at 1:03 to give Oakland an 80-74 lead going into the last minute when Chris Conway blocked two Panthers shots and Townsend slapped a loose ball out to a teammate.
Townsend ended up on the foul line and made one with 35.9 seconds to go for an 81-74 lead, matching the largest of the game. He later added two more free throws, finishing 14-of-18 from the line. He also contributed 11 rebounds and 5 assists.
Townsend became the second player in the past 25 seasons to score 35 or more points, record 10 or more rebounds and play 40 or more minutes in a conference championship game, joining Kevin Durant (2007 Big 12 championship game for Texas vs. Kansas).
Jack Gohlke scored 15 points for the Golden Grizzlies (23-11), who are headed to their fourth NCAA tournament, the first three coming when they were in the Summit League. Lampman had 12 points and Conway had 11 with 10 rebounds, to join Townsend, who had 11 rebounds, with a double-double.
Erik Pratt led sixth-seeded Milwaukee (20-15) with 16 points. Kentrell Pullian added 15 points, BJ Freeman 15 and Langston Wilson 10. The Panthers were trying to get into their fifth NCAA tournament, the first since 2014.
Lampman and Townsend each made a pair of free throws that gave Oakland the biggest lead of the game at 49-42 less than five minutes into the second half, but Pullian scored two quick baskets inside. After Townsend scored, the Panthers had six straight with Pullian giving them a 52-51 lead with 13:14 to go.
The lead reached four for the Panthers at 64-60 but that lasted all of 23 seconds.
Lampman had a fastbreak dunk and Gohlke drilled a 3-pointer in a late 7-0 run that helped the Grizzlies take a 37-33 lead at the half. The biggest lead of the half was 17-11 Oakland on a Gohlke 3 seven minutes in.
ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press contributed to this report.