ST. LOUIS—Freshman Austin Ruder matched his career-high with 21 points and fourth-seeded Missouri State made just enough free throws down the stretch Thursday for a 53-48 win over fifth-seeded Illinois State in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament quarterfinals.The Bears (20-11) face top-seeded and second-ranked Wichita State in the semifinals.Ruder hit a 3-pointer with 2:05 lead to put Missouri State up 48-46. After a miss by the Redbirds (16-15), Keith Pickens had a tip-in to make it 50-46 with 42 seconds remaining. After that, the Bears made 3 of 6 free throws, two by Dorrian Williams after Zach Lofton’s jumper for Illinois State made it 50-48 with 11 seconds to play.Zach Lofton came off the bench to score a career-high 25 for Illinois State, which trailed 22-17 at the half.Neither team shot even 33 percent, combining for 14 of 46 3’s and 19 of 36 free throws.
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Jake Odum scored 18 points as second-seeded Indiana State knocked off No. 10 seed Loyola 75-62 in a Missouri Valley Conference quarterfinal on Friday.Indiana State faces Southern Illinois (14-18) in the semifinals. SIU eliminated Northern Iowa 63-58 on Friday.Indiana State (21-9) shot 53 percent from the floor and made five 3-pointers. Justin Gant scored 14 points with four assists for the Sycamores and Devonte Brown added 12 points.Jeff White led Loyola (10-21) with 13 points, the only Rambler in double figures.Odum scored the last nine points of the first half for Indiana State as it took a 26-22 lead into the break.A 6-0 run at the start of the second half pushed the Sycamore lead to 10 and Loyola coach Porter Moser called timeout. The Ramblers scored the next two buckets to cut the lead to six, but that’s as close as they got as Indiana State ran its lead as high as 20 down the stretch.
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Desmar Jackson had 23 points and 11 rebounds as sixth-seeded Southern Illinois squandered a 19-point second-half lead on Friday night, but held on to beat No. 3 seed Northern Iowa 63-58.Anthony Beane added 16 points for SIU (14-18) which extended a 36-18 halftime lead to 43-24 early in the second half and was still leading 52-41 on Davante Drinkard’s jumper with 6:18 left. UNI (16-15) rattled off 11 straight points over the next three minutes to tie the game at 52.But the Panthers never took the lead as Southern Illinois scored five straight to take the lead for good and UNI missed all five of its 3-point attempts in the final two minutes.Seth Tuttle had 15 points, 17 rebounds and four blocked shots for UNI.The victory advances the Salukis to the Missouri Valley Conference semifinals where they will face No. 2 seed Indiana State on Saturday.