Ramblers Clinch & Second Up For Grabs

(St. Louis, MO) – Loyola has won its first Missouri Valley Conference championship, but every other spot is up for grabs. The Ramblers defeated second place Southern Illinois 75-56 Wednesday to win the title outright.

As six Ramblers tallied nine or more points and held the Salukis to their lowest point total in 15 games, Loyola (24-5, 14-3) won their sixth straight game. The latest RPI for the Ramblers is now 33. Are they mounting an ‘at-large worthy resume should they stumble at Arch Madness 2018?

But what about the rest of the final standings?

With Southern’s loss, and Drake’s loss at Illinois State there is a three-way battle for the second seed in next week’s conference tournament. SIU (19-11, 11-6) leads Drake (16-14, 10-7) and Illinois State (16-13, 10-7) by one game.

Illinois State’s 89-81 overtime win witnessed the return of Phil Fayne and Taylor Bruninga to the Redbird lineup. Fayne recorded a double-double (16 points & 11 rebounds) as did ‘Player of the Year’ candidate Milik Yarbrough (22 points & 10 rebounds). They overcame another prolific performance by Drake’s POY candidate Reed Timmer. The Bulldogs all-time leading scorer scored 26 points.

If the these teams finish in a three-way tie, Illinois State would receive the second place seed in St. Louis, by virtue of a better RPI status since the competitors have split their head-to-head match ups.

The Redbirds and Salukis finish the season on the road, SIU travels to Evansville and ILS has a date with the champion Ramblers. Drake entertains last place Valparaiso. The Crusaders can finish no higher than tenth after their Tuesday loss to Northern Iowa.

Two teams trying to fight their way out of the Thursday night play-in game at Arch Madness, fought to the final seconds as Indiana State edged Evansville 58-53. The Sycamores (12-17, 7-10) moved into a tie for sixth place and pushed the Purple Aces (16-14, 6-11) into a tie for eighth behind a 19-point/9 rebound performance by from Jordan Barnes.

The Valley’s leading scorer, Evansville’s Ryan Taylor tallied 30 points.

Missouri State’s narrow 82-78 home loss to Bradley dropped them into the tie with Indiana State. Both teams travel on Saturday, the Bears (17-13, 7-10) visit Northern Iowa and the Sycamores head to Bradley.

The Brave’ win in Springfield featured 22 three-pointers. Nine by the Braves and 13 by the Bears. Bradley received double-digit scoring from five players with Nate Kennell leading the way with 20 points and six of those triples. Brian Wardle’s squad (19-11, 9-8) trails Drake and Illinois State for third and fourth.

Jarred Dixon and Jarrid Rhodes paced the Bear offense. Dixon converted six of eight three-point attempts on his way to 24 points and Rhodes scored 20. The multiple combinations of how sixth through ninth place could finish, make it pointless for us to speculate how this will play out. However, if Indiana State and Missouri State tie for sixth place, the Bears will avoid the Thursday play-in game by virtue of their Sycamore sweep.

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