The Missouri Valley Conference will be holding its annual postseason tournament in St. Louis this weekend at the Scottrade Center.
The action gets underway on Thursday evening and will conclude with the championship game on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. with the winner getting the league’s automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.
As usual, the St. Louis area will be well represented this weekend as several players from the metro area will be coming home to participate in Arch Madness.
Senior guard Anthony James (Normandy) is the leading scorer at Northern Iowa. James recently surpassed the 1,000-point mark for his career. Former Maplewood High standout Bryant Allen is averaging nine points a game for Illinois State.
Missouri State features three area products in Keith Pickens (Oakville), Nathan Scheer (Borgia) and Christian Kirk (St. Charles West). Pickens is averaging six points a game while leading the Bears in rebounding. Scheer averages 5.2 points while shooting 38 percent from 3-point range while Kirk is averaging eight points and four rebounds a game.
Sophomore Dantiel Daniels (Wentzville Holt) is averaging 7.3 points and 3.1 rebounds for Southern Illinois. Daniels also leads the Salukis in rebounding.
Local players who are walkons for their respective teams are Darrion Harris (Whitfield) of Bradley, Mogloluwage Oginni (SLUH) of Creighton and Calvin Belts (Maplewood) of Southern Illinois.
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Here is the schedule for the MVC Tournament:
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Thursday, March 7
 8) Bradley vs. 9) Drake, 6:05 p.m.
 7) Missouri State vs. 10) Southern Illinois, 8:35 p.m.
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Friday, March 8
1)Â Â Â Â Â Creighton vs. Bradley-Drake winner, 12:05 p.m.
4) Evansville vs. 5) Indiana State, 2:35 p.m.
2)Â Â Â Â Â Wichita State vs. Missouri State-SIU winner, 6:05 p.m.
3)Â Â Â Â Â Northern Iowa vs. 6) Illinois State, 8:35 p.m.
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 Saturday, March 9
 Semifinals: 1:35 p.m. and 4 p.m.
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 Sunday, March 10
 Championship Game, 1:05 p.m. (KMOV-TV)
Stunning win
O’Fallon High entered last week’s Illinois Class 4A regional tournament with only seven wins. The Panthers promptly stunned top-seeded Belleville East and outlasted Collinsville to win the regional tournament and advance to the sectional semifinals against Edwardsville in a game that was held on Tuesday night.
McCluer North champs
McCluer North defeated Hazelwood East 61-52 to win the Class 5, District 8 championship last weekend. For North coach Randy Reed, it’s the seventh district championship in the past nine years. Despite losing 10 seniors from last year’s state-championship team, Reed has his Stars back in the winner’s circle again.
Meet me in Mascoutah
The IHSA Sectional playoffs resume on Friday night with championship games. The 3A sectional finals will be held at Mascoutah while the 4A sectional finals will be held in Pekin. Tip off is at 7:30 p.m. The winners move on to the Supersectionals, which will be held next Tuesday. The 3A Supersectionals will be held in Springfield while the 4A Supersectionals are in Normal.
