St. Louis – Southern Illinois knocked off Loyola 55-50 in quarterfinal action at the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament behind 16 points from Mike Rodriguez on Friday afternoon and will advance to play top-seed Illinois State in the semifinals on Saturday at 2:30.
Neither team was especially adept at shooting the basketball today as the Salukis (69.5ppg) and Ramblers (74.1ppg) combined for one of their lowest scoring totals of the season. Loyola launched 33 three-pointers in the game (hitting 10) while shooting just over 27%. The Salukis meanwhile dominated in the paint by outscoring the Ramblers 28-8 down low leading to a 40% shooting effort for SIU.
Loyola was paced by 16 points from Ben Richardson as 1st-team MVC guard Milton Doyle had a tough game, being held to two free throws in the final minute of the game after averaging 15.5 this season.
Southern Illinois advances to the semifinals for the first time since 2014 and will face an Illinois State team that must keep winning to clinch a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
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