UAB 73, Middle Tennessee 60: Robert Brown scored 22 points as the fourth-seeded Blazers defeated the sixth-seeded Blue Raiders to win the Conference USA tournament title in Birmingham, Ala., and gain the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

William Lee added 13 points and six rebounds for UAB (19-15), which had a 33-22 rebounding advantage. The Blazers went 9-of-19 from 3-point range, with Brown knocking down four, and had 21 assists on 27 baskets.

Jaqawn Raymond scored 12 points to pace Middle Tennessee (19-16), which went 9-of-21 from 3-point range and had a four-game winning streak halted. Perrin Buford added 11 points while DJ Jones had 10, but the Blue Raiders dug themselves a hole and couldn’t recover.

The Blazers led by eight points and went on a 11-3 burst that included two 3-pointers by Brown and one by Denzell Watts to take a 58-42 lead with 10:41 remaining. The onslaught continued as Hakeem Baxter’s 3-pointer increased the margin to 22 with 5:51 to play and UAB cruised to the finish, earning its first trip to the Big Dance since 2011.

The game was tied at 16-16 when Middle Tennessee’s Darnell Harris buried a 3-pointer just before the midway point of the first half before the Blazers asserted control with the next 11 points and sailed into halftime with a 37-26 advantage. The Blue Raiders were within nine after a four-point play by Jones with 16:32 left in the game and eventually cut it to eight before the Blazers took control.