ST. LOUIS — Isaia Howard scored a career-high 21 points off of the bench to help lead top seed Drake over eighth-seeded Southern Illinois 70-53 on Friday in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.
The Bulldogs (28-3) advanced to a semifinal Saturday against Belmont.
Howard added six steals for Drake, which also got 15 points, five rebounds and five assists from Bennett Stirtz and 11 points from Cam Manyawu.
Ali Abdou Dibba led the Salukis (14-19) with 19 points. Drew Steffe added 11 and Kennard Davis 10.
Belmont 76, Illinois State 73
Tyler Lundblade had 14 points and Carter Whitt added 12 points and 11 assists to lead the fourth-seeded Bruins into the semifinals. Belmont (22-10) took the lead with 17:55 remaining in the first half and did not relinquish it.
Dalton Banks led the way for the fifth-seeded Redbirds (19-14) with 19 points, six rebounds, seven assists, three steals and three blocks. Johnny Kinziger added 12 points.
Bradley 70, Murray State 62
Darius Hannah had 17 points and nine rebounds to lead No. 2 seed Bradley past seventh-seeded Murray State and into the semifinals.
Duke Deen scored 16 points and Jaquan Johnson 11 points for the Braves (25-7), who will face Northern Iowa or Valparaiso in a Saturday semifinal.
Kylen Milton led the Racers (16-17) with 23 points, Nick Ellington added 17 points and 10 rebounds and AJ Ferguson finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds.
No. 3 seed Northern Iowa faced No. 11 Valparaiso in Friday’s last quarterfinal.
The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.