Missouri Valley Basketball: Belmont, Southern Illinois loses in latest MTE struggles

Since Bradley and Drake won their respective multi-team events, the Missouri Valley Conference teams haven’t won a game. Tuesday, all three MTE-playing Valley teams got beat by extended scoring streaks by their opponents. 

After Missouri State’s impressive win over High Point and a narrow loss to Boston College, the Bears never got going during the third-place game of the Cayman Islands Classic. South Dakota State (6-2) won easily 75-55. 

The Jackrabbits opened the game with a 19-3 run and were never headed. Missouri State (4-3) was held to a season-low 55 points and made just .305 of its field goal attempts. Dez White was the only Bear to reach double-digits in scoring with 15 points. Jalen Hampton grabble eleven rebounds. The Bears are idle until a Sunday date at Oral Roberts. 

Southern Illinois couldn’t get over the hump at the Gulf Coast Classic. After dropping an overtime game to Lousiana Tech, the Salukis dropped a five point decision to Eastern Kentucky. 

EKU opened the game with a 21-4 run and dominated the first half, leading 48-22 at the half. SIU stormed back into the game with 50-point second half only to lose 77-72. 

Ali Dibba and Kennard Davis carried the offensive load for SIU. Dibba scored 26 points and Davis added 21 for the Salukis (2-5) who have lost four of their five games by ten or fewer points. SIU finishes the Gulf Coast Showcase Wednesday at 2:00 pm. 

The Salukis face Florida Tech and the game can be seen on FloCollege.com. 

Belmont’s first game in the Cancun Challenge didn’t look anything like a Belmont game. Casey Alexander’s team is normally extremely efficient offensively, but the Bruins’ first half was uncharacteristically poor. 

They scored just 25 first half points and had nearly as many turnovers (8) as field goals (10). Eventually Loyola Marymount built a 23-point second half lead with an early 12-2 run. While the Bruins finally saw their shots begin to fall, and got as close as twelve points but then the Lions pulled away to secure the 77-63 victory. 

Belmont (4-2) scored a season low in points and couldn’t connect from long distance. The Bruins made just nine of twenty-nine from beyond the arc and the bigger and stronger Lions created havoc on the defensive end. 

LMU’s (2-3) win was its first this season over a Division 1 team. 

Jonathan Pierre led the Bruin offense with 17 points. Brody Peebles scored eleven (all in the second half) and Isaiah Walker added ten. 

The Bruins face Tulane in the Cancun Challenge third place game.