(St. Louis, MO) – It is hard to win on the road on ‘Senior Night’. Wednesday night, all four home teams were celebrating their final year players and all four came away with home floor victories. Those wins, coupled with Wichita State’s Tuesday triumph, gave Missouri Valley Conference home teams a home conference record of 56-29 (.644).
Illinois State 50-46 over Southern Illinois
Senior Tony Wills scored a season high 16 points to help co-leader Illinois State overcome a poor shooting night to defeat Southern Illinois. The Redbirds (24-5, 16-1) kept pace with Wichita State despite receiving no points from second leading scorer MiKyle McIntosh and just five from leading scorer Deontae Hawkins. SIU (15-15, 8-9) fell into a fourth place tie with Loyola.
Indiana State 69-59 over Northern Iowa
Niels Bunschoten – gosycamores.com
Senior Niels Bunschoten scored a career high 20 points to spark Indiana State (11-19, 5-12) to a wire-to-wire win over Northern Iowa. The victory lifted the Sycamores out of last place into a three-way eighth place tie with Evansville and Drake. Bunschoten made four of five shots from long distance. Heading into the final game of the season, UNI (14-14, 9-8) is alone in third place.
Bradley 77-68 over Missouri State
Four Bradley players scored in double figures, led by Netherlands native Luuk van Bree’s 17 points. Bradley (11-19, 6-11) has moved into sole possession of seventh place. Missouri State (16-14, 7-10) lost for the fifth time in their last six games, despite Dequon Miller’s 26 points and four steals. The Bears are alone in sixth place.
Loyola 80-65 over Drake
Milton Doyle – loyolaramblers.com
Five Loyola players scored in double figures, including senior Milton Doyle’s 16 points as the Ramblers (18-12, 8-9) moved into a fourth place tie with their next opponent, Southern Illinois. Doyle has reached double figures in 31 straight games. Drake (7-22, 5-12) has lost eight straight games.
All ten Valley teams play on Saturday. First place is at stake for Wichita State and Illinois State as they play in separate road games. The winner of the Loyola’s game at SIU will climb to fourth place. The bottom four teams in the MVC race all face off on Saturday.
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Caleb Stone-Carrawell is in the portal. @SaintLouisMBB or some @ValleyHoops team ought to get this guy.
.@BustingBrackets gives a brief intro to the 5 new @ValleyHoops head coaches.
I don't blame players for leaving, but this wild fluctuation is going to kill fan interest. When the TV people's ratings go down and the attendance figures keep falling, maybe the 'Suits' will wake up and fix this.
I think I'm going to enter the portal.
