Sycamores one win away from NCAA spot
Avila, Swope, Conwell, Larry lead way to final
ST. LOUIS — Indiana State notched a 28th win of the season by taking down Northern Iowa 94-72 in the semifinal round of the Missouri Valley Conference tournament on Saturday at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis.
Here are three reasons why the Sycamores are moving on to the conference final:
Smooth shooting from 3
One day after a couple of key shooters didn’t have their stroke against Missouri State, they found it against Northern Iowa.
Robbie Avila and Isaiah Swope came out draining 3s left and right to build a 27-15 lead that would never get closer than eight after that. At one point, Avila hit four straight 3-point attempts, almost all as a trailer in transition. Swope was often the man he’d kick it out to in the corner when double-teamed, but Swope also took his own heat check, drilling one in isolation with a man in his face.
Those two combined to shoot 10of-13 from beyond the arc, and Indiana State drilled 15 shots from 3 on the afternoon.
“Everyone can shoot,” Missouri State coach Dana Ford said of the Sycamores the day before.
That wasn’t their banner effort from 3 either. This was closer to it.
Ryan Conwell dominates
As Avila got back to his normal stroke to finish with 18 points, he took a backseat to the true all-around star in this game.
Pike graduate Ryan Conwell turned in another big scoring effort with 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting, and that was just a sliver of the impact he had on the game. He guarded aggressively in the face of Northern Iowa’s shooters, helped run the court at times to finish with four assists and pulled in 13 rebounds, which were four more than any other player in the game.
The MVC Newcomer of the Year scored in just about every way in this one, hitting a pair of 3s, driving powerfully to the basket for layups, spinning to create space on shorter and midrange shots. He put the Panthers in a bind to where they couldn’t doubleteam him and Avila, and it was more firepower than anyone in purple could combat.
Julian Larry’s smooth operation
The unsung hero in this game, much like the previous one, was the point guard. Julian Larry finished third on the team in points but still scored 17, including with a pair of deep 3s.
But he was most impressive in how he ran the offense in the half-court, setting up Conwell, Avila and Swope to use their three very different skill sets. He drove hard and confident to the hoop and made good decisions on whether to finish it himself or kick it to Swope in the corner or to Conwell as a slasher.
He was the one finding Avila as the trailer for those back-breaking 3s early on.
And he did it in a very clean fashion, turning in seven assists without a single turnover.