ST. LOUIS -- Kelyn Block scored 21 points as No. 5 seed Indiana State
posted its second straight upset Monday night, beating Bradley 69-63 in the
Missouri Valley Conference Tournament championship game.
Indiana State (21-11), which earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament,
knocked off top-seeded Creighton in the semifinals on Sunday. Bradley (19-11),
which got a career-high 20 points from Eddie Cage, was the No. 2 seed.
The conference tourney championship is Indiana State's first since 1979,
when Larry Bird was a senior and led the Sycamores to an NCAA runner-up finish.
Indiana State made it to the NCAAs as an at-large team last season after
winning the conference regular-season title, ending a 21-year tournament
drought.
This is the 25th Valley Tournament, and Indiana State, which is headed to
the NCAAs in consecutive seasons for the first time in school history, is the
lowest seed ever to win it. Creighton won as the No. 4 seed last season.
Neither team figured to advance to the NCAAs without the tourney
championship, with Indiana State 89th and Bradley 92nd in the latest RPI
ratings.
Matt Renn added 16 points and Michael Menser 15 for Indiana State, which won
despite missing six free throws in the final two minutes. Phillip Gilbert hit a
3-pointer with 6.8 seconds to go for Bradley for the final margin.
Cage topped his previous career high of 18 points earlier this season
against Creighton. Jerome Robinson, Bradley's leading scorer with a 17-point
average, was held to seven points.
Indiana State made only two of its first 12 shots and Bradley led 17-6 with
10:08 to go in the first half. But the Sycamores made five straight shots in a
20-5 run that put them ahead 26-22 with three minutes to go before the break.
Block had his first 11 points in that run and he added four more in the
final 12.7 seconds of the half to give Indiana State a 31-26 lead.
Indiana State led by as many as 13 points after consecutive 3-pointers by
Menser made it 49-36 with 11:59 to go.
Bradley made it to the finals for the first time since 1996. The Braves last
won the tournament in 1988, during the Hersey Hawkins era.
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