MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (AP) -- The championship trophy fell apart in the hands of the South Alabama Jaguars.

That was pretty much the only thing that went wrong for them Tuesday night.

Richard Law scored 22 points, and South Alabama routed Western Kentucky 95-70 Tuesday night to win the Sun Belt Conference tournament championship and earn its first NCAA Tournament berth since 1998.

"This one here, from start to finish, our kids just played as well as they could possibly play," South Alabama coach John Pelphrey said. "From a defensive side, Western Kentucky is unbelievable offensively. To hold them to 33 percent for the game, that is the best of the year for us."

Western Kentucky coach Darrin Horn agreed.

"They were better in absolutely every single area of the game, not only how they performed in the game but the energy they played with. They did an outstanding job. We got off to a slow start, did not attack their pressure well, and it just snowballed from there," Horn said.

The Jaguars (24-6) are having their best season since 1980-81, when they went 25-6. They have won eight straight and 11 of their last 12 in giving Pelphrey, the Sun Belt coach of the year and former Kentucky forward, his first NCAA trip as a head coach after trips as an assistant at Oklahoma State and Florida.

"This may be the most special one because we're kind of out here on our own right now. We've been a part of rebuilding this," Pelphrey said.

No teams have played in this game more than these two.

The Jaguars got revenge against the Hilltoppers (23-7), who had won the last two meetings, including a 74-73 victory in Mobile in January, and four of the previous six meetings.

"All of us had a chip on our shoulders," sophomore guard Demetric Bennett said.

The Jaguars clinched their seventh NCAA berth by mixing their best shooting performance of the season with stingy defense. They shot 34-of-55 (62 percent) and forced Western Kentucky into 17 turnovers they turned into 22 points, including 16 in the first half alone.

"We wanted to come out and throw the first punch because Coach always tells us the more aggressive team wins," tournament MVP Chey Christie said. "We wanted to jump on them early, and we didn't look back."

Bennett added 18 points for South Alabama, Christie had 14 and Mario Jointer 11.

It was the worst loss this season for Western Kentucky, which gave up 91 points in a loss to Pacific in December. Horn said he was flabbergasted at his Hilltoppers' lack of energy.

"They were more hungry," Western Kentucky senior center Elgrace Wilborn said of the Jaguars. "Right now it's a really deep, bad pit feeling in the stomach right now. We didn't come out and play Western Kentucky basketball, and that was our downfall."

Anthony Winchester, the league's player of the year, finished with 18 points. However, he was 6-for-21 from the floor, including one 3-point attempt that hit the backboard right of the rim.

Wilborn added 11 points, and Courtney Lee had 10.

"We never could get that stand or stops that we needed," Horn said. "Even when we did get a few, we couldn't throw it in the ocean."

Having the home-court advantage with lots of red in the stands didn't help the Hilltoppers handle South Alabama's pressing defense. The Jaguars forced eight turnovers in an 18-4 run, capped by Law's 3-pointer with 8:36 left for a 28-14 lead.

"We let our defense play most of the game for us," Christie said.

Wilborn scored with 2:19 remaining to pull Western Kentucky within 36-26. South Alabama scored the final nine points, the last a 3 from the top of the key by Carlos Smith, for the 45-26 halftime lead -- the Jags' largest of the half.

The Jaguars kept adding to the margin in the second half and led by as many as 29 twice, and they spent most of the second half running out the clock until they could start celebrating and dancing near midcourt before a handful of their own fans.