Sixth-seeded Saint Louis received a game-high 24 points from Tramaine Isabell Jr. as the Billikens upended No. 3 Dayton 64-55 Friday night in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 Conference Men’s Basketball Championship at Barclays Center.

Saint Louis (21-12) advances to face No. 2 seed Davidson tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. (CT) in the A-10 semifinals. The game will be televised on CBS Sports Network.

Isabell was 9-of-18 from the field and 4-of-7 from 3-point range. He also dished out a team-leading six assists.

Jordan Goodwin provided a big spark on the boards, grabbing five on the offensive end and nine for the game. He also scored 17 points.

Javon Bess turned in 15 points, while D.J. Foreman grabbed nine rebounds.

Dayton went on top by six midway through the first half before the Billikens utilized a 9-0 run to take the lead late in the opening session. The Flyers led by one at the break, 64-55.

The Billikens scored the first two points in the second half on a pair of Goodwin free throws to take the lead, and they wouldn’t trail the rest of the way. A 7-0 run, sparked by a Foreman layup and punctuated by one of Isabell’s four 3-pointers, put SLU on top 43-36 with 14:38 remaining. SLU grew its lead to nine when a Javon Bess jumper at the 9:43 mark made it 52-43 Billikens.

Dayton did not go down quietly, however. The Flyers cut it to two at 53-51 with 4:45 left before a big Goodwin triple sparked a late 9-0 rally, and the Billikens would cruise to the win.

SLU will be looking for a berth in Sunday’s A-10 Championship final with a win tomorrow against Davidson. Rhode Island and St. Bonaventure meet on the other side of the bracket at Noon (CT).

No. 5 seeded Bradley held Missouri State scoreless for a key four-and-a-half minute stint late in the second half and then held off a late challenge by MSU down the stretch to slip out of Enterprise Center on Friday with a 61-58 upset win over the Bears in the quarterfinals of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.

Darrell Brown scored a game-high 20 points for the Braves (18-14), including a perfect 10-for-10 at the foul line. Elijah Childs added 12 for BU.

All three Missouri State seniors scored in double figures, led by 17 by Jarred Dixon, and 12 apiece from Ryan Kreklow and Josh Webster.

The No. 4 seeded Bears (16-16) saw a seven-point halftime lead dwindle to a 31-31 tie just over five minutes into the second period before the Braves nosed ahead for the first time, 37-36, on a pair of Brown free throws with 12:19 to play. [Read more…]

Royals catcher Salvador Perez suffered damage to the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow during Wednesday’s spring training workout.

The six-time All-Star will head to Los Angeles next week to receive a second opinion, and could miss most of all of the upcoming season if it’s determined he needs Tommy John
surgery.

Perez has posted back-to-back seasons with 27 home runs and 80 RBIs and led the Royals in both categories in 2018.

Missouri State shot 63.2 percent from the field and made three free throws in the final 5.5 seconds to score a 65-61 win over Loyola Chicago here Sunday afternoon, pushing the Bears into a first-place tie with Loyola and Drake in the Missouri Valley Conference.

MSU (15-12, 9-5 MVC) got 18 points from Keandre Cook on 7-of-9 shooting, while Tulio Da Silva pitched in 16 points and a game-high nine rebounds. Senior Jarred Dixon scored 10 for Missouri State, which won its fifth Valley road game for the first time since 2011-12.

Loyola (16-11, 9-5) was led by Cameron Krutwig and Marques Townes with 24 and 23 points, respectively.

The Bears led for nearly 30 minutes, building eight-point leads in both halves, but fell behind 56-55 after a Townes layup with 3:55 to go. But after the media timeout that followed, Cook sank a high-arching jumper from the right baseline to push Missouri State back on top by one. [Read more…]

Mizzou Men’s Basketball fell short on the road at Ole Miss, 75-65, on Saturday afternoon. The Tigers outrebounded Ole Miss 37-21, Mizzou’s largest rebounding margin of the season, and shot 47.1 percent from the field, but couldn’t overcome 25 costly turnovers despite a second-half surge.

Senior Jordan Geist poured in a game-high 23 points. He notched 19 of those 23 in the second half and surpassed the 20-point mark for the sixth time this season, adding four assists in 34 minutes. Geist’s strong second half willed the Tigers to within seven with 4:03 remaining on an old-fashioned 3-point play, but Ole Miss answered with a game-sealing 10-2 run to close out its victory.

Mizzou Women’s Basketball fell just short against Tennessee on Sunday at Mizzou Arena, falling 62-60. In front of a season-high 8,559 fans, Mizzou and Tennessee had a back-and-forth battle for the full 40 minutes, as both squads shot close to 40 percent from the field, but the Lady Vols pulled out the victory with a pair of free throws with 52 seconds remaining in the game.

Senior forward Cierra Porter scored 13 points on 6-for-7 shooting while snagging nine rebounds to lead the Tigers’ offensive effort. Senior guard Sophie Cunningham and junior guard Amber Smith poured in 13 and 14 points, respectively.

With 52 seconds remaining in the game, Mizzou and Tennessee were tied 60-60. Tennessee sophomore Rennia Davis was fouled by Porter on a shooting attempt within the restricted area and headed to the line for a pair of free throws. Davis sunk both shots from the charity stripe free throws to give the Lady Vols a two-point lead. The two made free throws ended up being the game-winning points, as the Tigers were unable to score in the contest’s final seconds.

Illinois State used a closing 14-6 run over the final two minutes Friday for a 60-56 win at JQH Arena, halting Missouri State’s winning streak at 13 games and handing the Lady Bears their first loss since Dec. 16.

The Lady Bears (14-8, 10-1 Missouri Valley Conference) fell to a tie for first in the league standings and still control their own destiny in the Valley race, despite seeing their streaks of 17 MVC wins (371 days) and 13 home league victories (404 days) come to an end. The Redbirds (14-9, 7-5) climbed into a tie for fourth place with the win.

Neither team led by more than three points until MSU’s Dariauna Lewis scored off an offensive rebound for a 33-28 advantage with 3:13 left in the third quarter, but the Redbirds opened the fourth period on a 6-0 run to go ahead 39-37 with 8:02 to play.

Brice Calip’s and-one got MSU the lead back during a 7-0 run that resulted in a 46-41 lead, and Jasmine Franklin and Alexa Willard scored on consecutive possessions after ISU tied the score to make it a 50-46 Lady Bears advantage with 2:03 on the clock.

After that, the Redbirds scored eight consecutive points to go up 54-50 with 24.9 seconds left, the Lady Bears scored quickly three separate times to stay within striking distance, but ISU made enough free throws to seal the win.

Illinois State owned a 35-33 rebounding lead, handing MSU only its third loss on the boards this season, and shot 18-for-27 at the foul line compared to 8-for-9 for the Lady Bears, who had attempted more free throws in 12 straight games entering the night.

The Lady Bears shot 37.5 percent from the floor and 0-for-14 from beyond the arc, but forced 23 ISU turnovers and swiped a season-high 14 steals.

Franklin scored 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting, and Calip added nine to surpass 500 in her career while nabbing a career-high five steals.

Missouri State takes on Bradley (17-6, 7-5) at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Saint Louis dropped a 91-61 decision to Saint Joseph’s on Friday night in Atlantic 10 Conference men’s basketball action at Hagan Arena.

The Billikens slip to 15-9 overall and 6-5 in the Atlantic 10, while Saint Joseph’s improves to 11-13 and 4-7 in the league.

Tramaine Isabell Jr. led SLU in scoring with 17 points, while Javon Bess chipped in 12. Jordan Goodwin scored eight points and gathered a team-high eight rebounds.

The Hawks, who handed the Billikens their largest defeat of the season, received a game-high 28 points from Charlie Brown. He made his first nine shots from the floor and also finished with a team-high nine rebounds.

Hasahn French, who finished with six points and seven rebounds, made the game’s first bucket to give SLU an early lead, but Saint Joseph’s responded with an 8-0 run to grab a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.

It was a manageable deficit for the Billikens at halftime as they trailed by 11 at 45-34. But SLU couldn’t get anything going in the beginning stages of the second half, and the Hawks continued to grow their margin and never looked back.

The Billikens are back in action on Wednesday when they face George Washington in Washington, D.C. Game time is 5:30 p.m.

Missouri State overcome a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit Friday evening, out-scoring Drake 32-16 in the final 10 minutes for an 85-79 victory.

The Lady Bears (12-7, 8-0 Missouri Valley Conference) extended their win streak to 11 games overall and 15 in MVC play, ending Drake’s record 47-game conference streak and dropping the Bulldogs to 15-5 overall and 7-1 in Valley games.

Senior Danielle Gitzen collected her third career double-double with 21 points and 10 rebounds, Brice Calip scored 12 of her 16 points in the fourth quarter, Dariauna Lewis scored a career-high 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting, and Alexa Willard added 13.

After yielding a 30-point outburst to the Bulldogs in the third quarter on the way to a 63-53 deficit after 30 minutes, the Lady Bears roared out of the gates in the final period, with Calip scoring the first six of a 9-0 run that took just 91 seconds.

Gitzen scored with 7:30 left for a 66-65 lead that MSU would never relinquish, as a Lewis free throw for 71-67 capped an 18-4 run to the halfway mark of the fourth. Two Gitzen free throws with 2:10 left made it 77-70, and it was a 77-74 advantage with 52 seconds left when the Bulldogs began fouling in a comeback attempt. The Lady Bears hit eight free throws in the final 45 seconds and 15 in the final quarter.

MSU got off to a 1-for-8 shooting start but never trailed by more than five points in the first half, pulling even at 26-26 taking their first lead at 30-29 on Calip’s jumper. After Lewis hit a trey with 52 seconds left for a 33-31 advantage, Drake made seven of its next eight field goal attempts to build a double-digit lead at 48-38 with 6:08 on the third quarter clock.

Missouri State closed within a possession at 50-47 after Sydney Manning’s bucket, but the Bulldogs were sent to the foul line 13 times in the third quarter on the way to the 63-53 lead after 30 minutes.

The Lady Bears owned a 52-41 rebounding edge, including 22 offensive boards to help MSU attempt 10 more shots than the Bulldogs. Missouri State shot 39 percent compared to .446 for DU, and grabbed 12 steals.

The Lady Bears stay in Iowa for a 2 p.m. Sunday contest at UNI (12-7, 5-2).