The Hilltoppers celebrate after the game Monday, March 11, 2013, Sun Belt Tournament at the Summit Arena in Hot Springs, Ark. (Photo by Joe Imel/Daily News)

    HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — What once seemed improbable has now become habit. The Harper way. The Hilltopper way.

    Western Kentucky is going back to the NCAA Tournament once again, winning the Sun Belt Conference tournament for the second straight year, winning four games in four straight days for the second straight year and saving what was otherwise an anerage season.

    After holding on to beat Florida International 65-63 inside Summit Arena on Monday night, WKU (20-15) danced amidst a monsoon of confetti and cut down the nets to celebrate its ninth SBC title.

    “It’s amazing,” an emotional WKU senior Jamal Crook said. “Just like last year, they counted us out last year, they for sure counted us out this year. We just ought through it, stuck together and we pulled it out.”

    Crook made his teams final three points, all free throws, to ice the game, the final shot coming with six seconds to play making it 65-60 – to much of a deficit with too little time for FIU (18-14) to overcome.

    “Our guys, they continued to believe, they continued to fight and, once again, made plays down the stretch,” WKU coach Ray Harper said. “Proud of them and moving on to continue to play.”

    Harper is now 8-0 in Sun Belt Conference tournament games and 9-1 in the postseason as coach of WKU.

    His team entered the weekend as the sixth seed, not given much of a chance despite pulling off the same feat one year ago as a seven seed.

    “I feel like our guys are well-conditioned and we’ve got some depth and it’s a mindset and mental toughness and are you mentally tough enough to play through a little fatigue?” Harper said. “I’m excited for those kids. They put in a ton of hard work. Last year people had really written them off. I think someone said when we went to the tournament someone counted them, ‘as dead on the roadside’ at one point last year.

    “More than anything, the character of those young men is why we’re sitting here.”

    Western Kentucky led for the final 24:42 on Monday, quite the opposite recipe of furious comebacks and wild finishes used during the 2012 run.

    The Tops’ largest lead of the second half came after Brandon Harris splashed a 3 from the left corner at 44-36 with 13:10 to go.

    Florida International continued to linger, cutting the score to 48-46 with Tola Akomolafe’s putback and then 49-48 when Akomolafe cut free to the basket for an easy layup.

    Western Kentucky responded with three straight free throws, then got a block and long jumper from George Fant just inside the arc to make it 54-48.

    With 1:31 to play, Crook hit a Jumper to make it 62-54. The Golden Panthers made one last gasp and were down 62-60 before sending Crook to the line for two free throws with 24 seconds left.

    He sank both.

    “This is it,” the Louisville native said on his thought process when heading to the line. “I knew we had. I knew I was going to knock down one and they still had to come down and throw up something.

    “I was just thanking God when I went to halfcourt.”

    The Hilltoppers are scheduled to arrive at 4 p.m. today at E.A. Diddle Arena and the public is welcome to come welcome them back at the U.S. Bank Arena entrance on University Boulevard.

    The Hilltoppers started out Monday’s win on a 9-2 run, getting a three-point play from George Fant, a jumper on the right baseline from Crook and two from Aleksejs Rostov after Fant found him on the left block.

    International responded with a 17-2 run that finished with a long 3 out of the hands of Cameron Bell that made it 19-11.

    Western Kentucky came right back with an 11-0 spurt of its own, starting with T.J. Price’s first two of the night and ending with a Price kick-out from underneath the basket to Crook on the right win leading to a long jumper.

    The Panthers went up momentarily 23-22 on back-to-back layups from Tymell Murphy. Caden Dickerson and Brandon Harris sank 3s of their own to make it 28-23.

    Florida International hung tough, getting within 28-27 on another Murphy layup. A three-point play from Crook made it 31-27 before two Deric Hill free throws made it 31-29 at the half.

    The Panthers could never get their shots to fall in the second half, finishing the game with a 38.7 percentage from the floor.

    Rick Pitino’s bunch turned the ball over 14 times and were outscored 17-9 in second-chance points.

    “Well certainly it hurts pretty bad right now,” FIU first-year coach Richard Pitino said. “I tried to tell these guys there is zero doubt in my mind, probably tomorrow after a good night’s sleep, they’re going to look back and reflect and you’re going to see a team who turned around a program that was really struggling. It was all with those guys with the heart, toughness, effort every single day. For year one, I’m pretty lucky. Those guys never had a bad day. They played extremely hard, were great kids, did things all the right way. I know I’m very proud of them, I know the school of FIU is very proud of them. You got to give all the credit in the world to Western Kentucky, they were just better than us tonight.”

    Western Kentucky will learn their tournament fate – time and opponent – Sunday. The school will hold a Selection Show watch party at E.A. Diddle Arena with doors opening at 4 p.m.

    Bell had 15 for FIU, Malik Smith finished with 14, Jerome Frink had 13 and Tymell Murphy added 11 points while pulling down 10 rebounds.

    Fant finished with 17 points and 13 rebounds while Crook also had 17. Harris had 12.