Close battles in league play
Saturday’s games were a microcosm of the entire conference season. Loyola’s seven-point in (in overtime) was the largest margin of victory of any of the four games. The other three games were decided by a total of five points.
Valley teams have played 15 games and ten were decided by five or fewer points, not including the overtime game Saturday. With three road teams winning Saturday, four of the last six conference games have been won by the visitors.
Missouri State won at Bradley Wednesday on a buzzer-beating triple. During Saturday’s loss at home to Northern Iowa, the Bears led throughout and UNI took the lead with 52 seconds left for the victory.
MSU guard Isiaih Mosley scored a career-high 43 points as he and Green put on an offensive show. 27 of Mosley’s points came during the second half and Green scored 29 of his 33 in that same second stanza.
The regular season is a preamble to the post-season tournament (Arch Madness) where the top-seeded team routinely struggles to win. In 31 seasons of the Valley’s postseason tournament being conducted in St. Louis, the regular-season champion has won just ten times. The second-seeded team has won on ten occasions. Eleven times teams seeded lower have won the Arch Madness crown.
Murray State’s addition will strengthen the league next year, but during this season, this highly competitive league has to figure out how to tackle the ascending Northern Iowa Panthers and the dominating Loyola Chicago Ramblers.