Great First Day

(St. Louis, MO) – Ohio Valley and Missouri Valley Conference teams swept their four games on the first full day of postseason basketball.

National Invitation Tournament

The OVC went 3-0 across two tournaments. Headlining the three game sweep was Murray State’s (28-5) 81-66 National Invitation Tournament win over UTEP (22-10). A tight half time game turned into a route before the partisan Racer crowd.

Jarvis Williams carried the load with a 25 point/14 rebound double-double. OVC player of the year, Cameron Payne recorded a double-double of his own with 14 points and 10 assists. T.J. Sapp scored 21 points. Next up for Steve Prohm’s team is Tulsa.

College Insider.com Tournament

Eastern Illinois and Eastern Kentucky were both victorious in the College Insider.com Tournament. EIU (18-14) and Oakland had an offensive explosion as the Panthers won 97-91. Reggie Smith led the way with 26 points. Dylan Chatman and Trae Anderson both reached double figures and freshman Cornell Johnston handed out 11 assists.

EKU (20-11) knocked off Norfolk State 81-75 as four Colonels reached double figures in scoring. Eric Stutz and Corey Walden both scored 22 points. Walden added five rebounds, eight assists and three steals.

College Basketball Invitational 

Loyola (20-13) was the only MVC team in action. The Ramblers are participating in the College Basketball Invitational and defeated Rider 62-59 as Milton Doyle scored 22 points, grabbed four rebounds and handed out six assists. Devon Turk dropped four 3-pointers on his way to 14 points.

Porter Moser’s team takes on the winner of UC Santa Barbara and Oral Roberts in the quarter finals, next Monday.

Two Valley teams play tonight. Evansville (19-12) host IPFW in the CIT and Illinois State (21-12) entertains Green Bay in the NIT.

Do Good