Double Overtime and a Half Court Winner
(St. Louis, MO) – “Welcome to the Missouri Valley Conference!” If you were cruising your ESPN+ app last night to watch Valley games, you heard that often as we observed a double overtime and a half court winner.
Opening night of MVC action was thrilling and crippling.
Nail Biters
Drake went to Evansville looking to build on their 11-2 record, but early in the first half, star guard Nick Norton went down with a knee injury. The Bulldogs hung tough and took the Purple Aces into double overtime before losing 82-77. The biggest story of the night is Norton’s injury.
Evansville’s K.J. Riley (25 points) and Marty Hill (24 points) led the Aces (7-7, 1-0) as Riley connected on 13 of 17 free throws. Hill buried five of seven shots from long distance. Drake’s Nick McGlynn recorded a double-double (16 points and 10 rebounds) despite a poor shooting night.
Illinois State had a 12 point second half lead at Valparaiso. They led by ten points (54-44) with 2:07 to go, when Valpo went on a 14-2 run capped by this game winning triple by Marcus Golder.
Unbelievable win by @ValpoBasketball on this shot. pic.twitter.com/e1dGs9pEql
— Harry Schroeder (@FatherHarry1) January 3, 2019
Valpo 58 – Illinois State 56
Illinois State’s (7-7, 0-1) Zach Copeland led all scorers with a career high 21 points. Ryan Fazekas led the Crusaders (8-6, 1-0) with 14.
Southern Illinois (8-6, 1-0) ground out a 75-70 win over Missouri State. The Salukis who played without Thik Bol and Armon Fletcher picked up double digit scoring from four different players. Kavion Pippen led the way with 23 points.
Missouri State (6-8, 0-1) trailed by two points with four minutes left, and dropped their opener in Carbondale, Illinois despite 15 points from both Ryan Kreklow and Keandre Cook.
Blow Outs
Northern Iowa was the only victorious road team. They blasted Bradley 65-47 in Peoria. UNI (6-8, 1-0) shut down Bradley’s leading scorers, out rebounded the Braves while making 46 percent of their own three-point attempts.
The Panthers held the Bradley (8-7, 0-1) starting back court (Darrell Brown and Dwayne Lautiere-Ogunleye) to a COMBINED two points. UNI’s Trae Berhow (14 points and seven rebounds) made four of six shots from deep.
Loyola (8-6, 1-0) devastated Indiana State (8-5, 0-1) early and led the Sycamores 46-12 at half time. The Ramblers finished them off 79-44 as Aher Uguak scored a career high 19 points. Indiana Star Jordan Barnes was reportedly ill and did not play the second half. Four of ISU’s starters combined to score TWO total points.
All ten teams play again on Saturday.
Welcome to the Missouri Valley Conference.
Do Good
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As we near the closing of the portal window, we've reached 1900. Some of them never to play college basketball again, earn a college degree and some to play at a much lower level than they did last season.
I guess we'll be seeing this in a @RacersHoops uniform this year. Glad AJ is staying in the @ValleyHoops.
