MVC – Never Been Tighter

(St. Louis, MO) – As the middle third of the Missouri Valley Conference season begins the race has never been tighter. With all five home teams winning last night, nine of the league’s ten teams are separated in the standings by two games.

Bradley is three games out, and they’ve won two straight times.

The race has never been tighter.

Exhibit A

Southern Illinois had lost four straight games and Barry Hinson told us his team was not executing and making poor decisions. The Salukis began last night’s game in dreadful fashion. Ten minutes in, SIU trailed 22-4, and THEN it got bad. Northern Iowa opened up a 35-14 lead with 1:35 left in the half.

Barry Hinson’s team then morphed into ‘Floor Burn U’ and shut the Panthers down. UNI (8-12, 3-4) wouldn’t score for the next nine minutes and SIU (10-10, 3-4) forced seven turnovers. The Egyptian Dawgs forced a total of 20 turnovers and won the game 70-62.

Four Salukis reached double figures as St. Louisian Aaron Cook scored 17 points. Freshman Darius Beane, who seems to expand his game daily, scored 16. Sean Lloyd scored 16 points, grabbed six rebounds and Eric McGill chipped in 13 points and led the team with five assists.

Exhibit B

The Drake Bulldogs. They were picked ninth in the preseason poll and after a very good non-conference season lost their best player (Nick Norton) right as Valley play began. They dropped their first two conference games and have gone 4-and-1 since.

In last night’s win over Evansville, Nick McGlynn, arguably the conference’s best player, recorded another double-double (20 points and 10 rebounds). First year coach Darian DeVries oversees the highest scoring team in the league and defeated UE 78-66.

Exhibit C

After an 0-and-5 start to MVC play, most people left Bradley for dead. So, Brian Wardle’s team went on the road and defeated SIU and last night handled Illinois State 85-68. The Braves (10-10, 2-5) handed out 19 assists, outrebounded ISU 40-to-29 and saw two players score 20 points. Luuk van Bree (21) and Darrell Brown (20) combined to nail eight three-pointers.

Milik Yarbrough led the Redbirds (11-9, 4-3) with 25 points.

Exhibit D

How do figure Missouri State. The Bears (9-11, 3-4) had dropped two straight games and was dead last in Valley play defense. They were allowing 70.3 points per game. Wednesday night they drilled defending the champion Loyola Ramblers 70-35. That’s right, they allowed 35 points. They held Loyola (12-8, 5-2) to NINE REBOUNDS. NINE!!

Dana Ford told CBS Sports Network it was a big win for MSU.

“It’s confidence booster,” said Ford. “You know our margin of error is so slim, that the truth of the matter is that the guys we are playing have to play well and they played well tonight. We wanted to come out and do our best and today we played better than our best.”

Keandre Cook led the Bears with 21 points. The 6’5 junior reached the 20-point mark in four the Bears’ first five games. He hadn’t topped that plateau in 14 straight contests.

Exhibit E

Indiana State had lost five of its last seven games. Their leading scorer Jordan Barnes is in a historic shooting slump. The Sycamores were 1-and-2 in home league games. So Wednesday night they beat visiting Valparaiso (12-8, 5-2) 70-53.

Barnes’ slump continued (he scored three points), but four other Sycamores reached double figures as freshman Cooper Neese scored a career-high 14 points. Tyreke Key knocked down four triples and added 22 points.

It’s Never Been Tighter

All three Valley teams with winning conference records lost on Wednesday night. So Valpo and Loyola are still tied for first at 5-and-2. Drake and Illinois State are one game back at 4-and-3. Five teams are tied at 3-and-4.

The top nine teams are separated by two games. Four of Wednesday night’s five road teams play at home this weekend. The Valley race has never been tighter and it could get tighter still.

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