Drake’s Eli Shetlar jams one home during the Bulldog’s upset win over top-seeded Belmont, Friday afternoon at the MVC Tournament at Enterprise Center. (Photo: Terrance Williams)
ST. LOUIS, MO — It has truly been Arch Madness at the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament at Enterprise Center so far this weekend.
Higher seeded teams have lost four of the seven games played on the first two days of the event, including top-seeded, regular season champion Belmont, which lost in the quarterfinals to No. 9 seed Drake, which came into to tournament with a losing record overall after having lost its last nine regular season games in a row.
Now, some are believing the Bulldogs — who have won the MVC Tournament the last three seasons in a row — might be the favorites to win it all again this year.
Northern Iowa’s Ben Schweiger celebrates making a play in the Panthers’ win over Illinois State at the MVC Tournament, Friday night at Enterprise Center. (Photo: Terrance Williams)
Another team coming off a major upset is Northern Iowa. The Panthers came into Arch Madness as the MVC’s No. 6 seed, but laid a straight up beat down on No. 3-seeded Illinois State, Friday night, 74-52.
Northern Iowa lost five straight games back in January, but have gone 9-3 since, including two wins already this weekend at Arch Madness.
The Panthers will play Bradley, the one higher seeded team that looked like it deserved to be such this weekend. Although it took the Braves two overtimes to take down No. 7 seed Valparaiso in a quarterfinal matchup on Friday.
In fact, Valpo had the lead in the final seconds of overtime, but Bradley’s Alex Huibregtse hit one of the most clutch three’s of his life, with 25 seconds left to force a second overtime.
In those five minutes, the Braves managed to outlast Valpo to advance to Saturday’s semifinals.
UIC’s Rashund Washington, Jr. scored 17 points to help lead the Flames to an upset win over Murray State in the MVC Tournament quarterfinals, Friday afternoon at Enterprise Center. (Photo: Terrance Williams)
The other surprise team at Arch Madness is Illinois-Chicago.
The Flames had injury problems, team chemistry problems, and a losing record heading into January. But then they just fixed it all, beginning with an eight-game winning streak in mid- to late-January.
The run continued through February, which included UIC’s biggest win of the regular season — a double-overtime thriller over Bradley on February 24. But Friday’s win over Murray State may have been UIC’s most impressive.
The Flames dominated from start-to-finish and ran Murray State right out of the gym, led by its dynamic freshman backcourt of Andy Johnson and Rashund Washington, Jr., who both scored 17 points.
UIC is now 18-14 on the season, with its sights set on Drake, a team the Flames defeated twice already this season.
Saturday’s semifinals will begin with the Drake-UIC matchup at 2:30 and conclude with the Bradley-Northern Iowa showdown at 5. Both games will be televised live nationally on the CBS Sports Network, with the winners advancing to Sunday’s championship game, 11 a.m. on CBS.
Saturday, March 7 — Semifinals
Semifinal #1 — #9 Drake vs. #5 Illinois-Chicago — 2:30 pm (CBS Sports Network)
Semifinal #2 — #2 Bradley vs. #6 Northern Iowa — 5:00 pm (CBS Sports Network)
Sunday, March 8 — Championship Game
Championship Game — Semifinal 1 Winner vs. Semifinal 2 winner — 11 am (CBS)