Valley Heating Up

League Members on a 12-2 Run

(St. Louis, MO) – Missouri Valley teams are heating up. After a sluggish start, league members have won twelve of their last 14 games. Beginning last Friday, MVC teams have defeated teams from the conferences immediately ahead of and behind them in the KenPom rankings.

Valley teams won three of four games Tuesday night. The only loss occurring when Evansville visited Ohio State.

Northern Iowa, Belmont and Missouri State won important nonconference games.

UNI 82 – Western Illinois 56

The Panthers turned a close game into a route over one of the Ohio Valley Conference’s top ranked team. Trey Campbell (18), Tytan Anderson (17) and Ben Schwieger (13) led the offense as UNI improved to 3-2.

Belmont 90 – Oral Roberts 80

Belmont came from behind to defeat ORU. Tyler Lundblade racked up a career high 25 points and Jonathan Pierre added 22 as the Bruins (4-1) won their third straight game. Belmont trailed by 17 points and scored 59 in the pivotal second half. The Golden Eagles are the second Summit League to fall during this streak.

Missouri State 78 – UT Arlington 68

Six Missouri State (3-1) players scored nine or more points during the Bears’ third straight win. Jalen Hampton recorded a double-double (12 points and 12 rebounds) and Zaxton King scored 18 points. Reigning ‘Newcomer of the Week’ Vincent Brady II added 14. UT Arlington hails from the Western Athletic Conference.

Teams from KenPom’s sixth (Mountain West), eighth (American Athletic) and tenth (CUSA) best conferences have fallen to the eleventh ranked MVC. The WAC is just behind the Valley at twelfth.

After Wednesday’s game between Murray State and Maryland Eastern Shore, four MVC teams head to multi-team events.

UIC, Drake, Bradley and Illinois State head south for MTEs.

Valparaiso has a Thursday date with the OVC’s Lindenwood.

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