Wednesdays in the Valley

Southern Illinois With a Half Game Lead

(St. Louis, MO) – Nail-biters were the rule, Southern Illinois takes over first place, Missouri State ekes out a victory and Drake survives. Good Morning, this is ‘Wednesdays in the Valley’ a weekly part of ValleyHoopsInsider.com. I’m Harry Schroeder, editor of the site and host of the show.

Three Home Teams Survive

When people told me Southern Illinois and Murray State were big rivals, I believed them because they were people that should know. Last night’s game had all the emotion and drama of tried and true long-standing rivalry game.

SIU won it 68-64 and for the moment, are alone in first place with 9-and-2 record. The Salukis turned a four-point second half deficit into a four-point win by shutting the Racers out the final 98 seconds of the game. Lance Jones scored 19 points and Marcus Domask dropped in 17 for SIU and Brian Moore tallied 19 for Murray State.

Emotions ran high after the game and we’re still trying to look into what took place.

UIC took Missouri State to the wire, but like in Carbondale, the home team pulled it out at the end. The Flames led by one point, 57-56 with 75 seconds left, but were outscored seven-to-two the rest of the way. 63-59 was the final. Bears’ coach Dana Ford told us earlier in the week that he needed to get Alston Mason more involved and the sophomore guard contributed 19 points.

Missouri State raises their league record to 7-4. UIC has lost eight in-a-row, and fall to one and ten in league play. Last night’s four-point defeat was their fourth by six points or less during the streak.

Drake couldn’t have played a better first half than they did last night. After scoring 97 points in their Saturday win, they rang up 44 more points during last night’s first half against Indiana State. The preseason favorites led by 18, Tucker DeVries had 17 at intermission and the Knapp Center fans were content.

The second half belonged to the Sycamores. Led by freshman forward Robbie Avila, they fought all the way back took the lead with 17 seconds left. Drake won it on a last second triple by the program’s all-time long distance record holder, D.J. Wilkins. It came after a wild scramble for the ball and Drake won it 70-68.

The Bulldogs are 7-4 and the Sycamores fall to 6-5. While Avila and Courvoisier McCauley each scored 22 for ISU, four Bulldogs reached double figures led by DeVries’ 21.

Wednesdays in the Valley also feature the games tonight.

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Tonight’s Three Games

Wednesdays in the Valley feature a big rivalry contest, two teams on winning streaks and Belmont trying to keep pace with SIU.

Illinois State (8-13, 3-7) @ Bradley (13-8, 6-4) – 7 pm – MVC TV

‘The War on 74’ is on tonight as Illinois State visits Bradley. This long and important rivalry owns the best rivalry name of any in the Valley. While the Redbirds have lost three straight games and tied for ninth in the Valley race, stealing a win on their most bitter rival’s home floor would make everything right for Illinois State fans.

Bradley leads the all-time series 69 to 65 and the two teams split last year’s series, with each team winning at home. The Braves had a 17 game, home-winning streak snapped last week, so you can believe the Carver Arena crowd will be a little salty.

The battle in the paint should determine this game. If Illinois State’s bigs can hold their own with Bradley’s even bigger front court, the Redbirds have a chance.

Valparaiso (9-12, 3-7) @ Northern Iowa (11-9, 7-3) – 7 pm – ESPN+

Northern Iowa has won eight of its last ten and have moved into sole possession of third place. Some had left Valparaiso for dead, but the Beacons have won their last three games and suddenly look like a dangerous team.

Player of the Year candidate Bowen Born (18.8 ppg) and Tytan Anderson lead the way for the Panthers. The ‘K-Squared Offense’ of Ben Krikke and Kobe King spark the Beacons. Those four are proven commodities for these two teams, so we look to UNI’s three rookies, Landon Wolf, Trey Campbell and Michael Duax as keys to watch for the Panthers.

Freshly minted ‘Newcomer of the Week’ Quinton Green, assist leader Nick Edwards and resurgent junior Connor Barrett support the Beacon stars.

Belmont (15-6, 8-2) @ Evansville (4-17, 0-10) – 7 pm – ESPN+

First place Belmont has won six straight and nine of their last ten games. Two-time ‘Player of the Week’ Ben Sheppard ranks among the Valley leaders of nine statistical categories. Three Bruins (Keishawn Davidson, Cade Tyson and Ja’Kobi Gillespie) have received ‘Newcomer of the Week’ awards. Belmont leads the league in three point percentage and is second in overall field goal percentage.

Evansville has dropped eight straight and is last in the league in scoring and in stopping the opposition from scoring. Kenny Strawbridge is the league’s ninth leading scorer (15.4 ppg).

Here is last week’s edition of Wednesdays in the Valley.

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