The MVC Rundown

What a game.

Creighton dominated for the first 25 minutes. Wichita dominated for the next 14:58.

On an inbounds play with 1.9 seconds left, Booker Woodfox hit a leaning 15-foot jumper as time expired, allowing the Bluejays to continue on their quest for the NCAA tourney. Creighton won 63-62.

The Shockers couldn’t do much right and found themselves trailing 47-25 with 15 minutes left in the game. Still trailing 61-53 with 1:45, they held the Jays scoreless until the final shot of the game.

When Creighton played Southern Illinois in Omaha on Jan. 20th, the Salukis made Anthony Tolliver cry.

This time around, Tolliver returned the favor.

The burly forward scored 15 points and grabbed 13 rebounds as the Jays upended SIU 67-61 to win the Missouri Valley Conference tournament in St. Louis.

Tolliver’s success around the rim was due in large part to the absence of Salukis big man Randal Falker, who fouled out with just three points and 22 minutes of floor time.

Joining Tolliver in double digits for Creighton was Nate Funk, who had 19, and Nick Porter and Dane Watts, who had 15 and 12 points, respectively.

Southern Illinois won its 13th straight game thanks to a Matt Shaw putback with 3.2 seconds left to beat Bradley 53-51.

The Salukis (27-5) trailed most of the game and were down by as many as eight points early in the second half.

SIU’s Bryan Mullins tied the game at 42-42 on a driving layup with about seven minutes left, capping an 11-3 run.

Neither team led by more than two points the rest of the game.

Bradley’s Zach Andrews scored with :16 left to tie the game at 51-51 on the play leading up to the Shaw tip-in.

Missouri St. grabbed its 20th win of the season and secured the third seed in the MVC tourney with a 71-65 win over Wichita State on Tuesday.

The Bears led by one at half, but only scored four points in the first nine minutes of the second half. The Shockers led 46-38 and were in control of the game after Karon Bradley’s three-pointer.

But Missouri St. responded with a 26-9 run over the next ten minutes, and never looked back.

I have no available box score for this game.

For 29 minutes, Creighton was in control of its game against Drexel Saturday at the Qwest Center in Omaha.

With Creighton leading 41-34 at the 11-minute mark, Anthony Tolliver picked up his fourth personal foul.

Drexel then went on a crippling 23-9 run and never looked back in the 64-58 win. Dragon guard Dominick Mejia scored 13 of his game-high 19 points during the run.

The game featured a technical foul assessed to each coach at different points in the second half.

Bluejay coach Dana Altman garnered his technical for wandering outside of the coaches box at the 8:42 mark, shortly after Tolliver drew his fourth foul.

The MVC earned perhaps its biggest win of the day today when Bradley beat VCU, 73-64 in Richmond, Va.

The Braves trailed by one at halftime, but opened up a 12-point lead by the seven-minute mark in the second half.

VCU never closer than seven points the rest of the way.

Bradley moves to 19-10 overall, and for the BracketBuster weekend, the MVC is now 4-4 with Drake and Creighton still yet to finish today.

Stats not yet available for the game.

Much like Wichita State, UNI will have to win the MVC tourney to earn a bid into the NCAA tourney.

After trailing 33-32 at halftime, Nevada used a 22-4 run to start the second half to blow away the Panthers Saturday in Reno.

Four Wolfpack players scored in double figures, led by Marcellus Kemp’s 18 points. Kemp also had nine rebounds and six assists.

Northern Iowa falls 16-12 overall, while Nevada remains one of the nation’s two two-loss teams at 24-2.

Jamaal Tatum scored 20 points and Matt Shaw added 14 points as Southern Illinois won its ninth straight game, 68-64 at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

SIU led by five at the half and extended the lead to as many as ten early in the second half.

Butler cut the lead to 54-52 with about five minutes to play, but six straight SIU free throws put the lead back at eight.

In the final two minutes, the Bulldogs were within three points on several occasions, but SIU hit 8-of-10 free throws in the final minutes to seal the win.

Indiana St. blew a seven-point halftime lead and lost 70-58 to Miami (OH).

Nathan Peavy scored 21 points and Tim Pollitz added 20 for the Redhawks.

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In Birmingham, Evansville shot 69.8 percent from the field in a 69-65 win over Samford.

Jason Holsinger led the Purple Aces with 16 points.

The MVC is currently 1-3 for the BracketBuster weekend.

D.J. Thompson hit a spinning bank-shot with 5.5 seconds left to lift Appalachian St. to a 60-58 win over Wichita St. from Koch Arena Saturday.

Karon Bradley’s desperation three-pointer at the buzzer was nowhere close to the rim.

The Shockers led by as many as eight points in the first half, but led by only one at halftime.

ASU led the majority of the final six minutes, helped by the Shockers not making a field goal from the 8:35 mark until P.J. Cousinard’s dunk with just under two minutes left.