Defense leads Northern Iowa to Valley title

ST. LOUIS (AP) - Kwadzo Ahelegbe had 24 points and Northern Iowa used a dominating defensive second half to beat Wichita State 67-52 on Sunday for its second straight Missouri Valley Conference tournament title.

Northern Iowa (28-4) rode defense to the regular-season title and did it again at Arch Madness, holding the Shockers without a field goal for more than 12 minutes during a 25-3 second-half run.

The Panthers earned the conference's automatic bid into the NCAA tournament and are the first team since Illinois State in 1997-98 to sweep both Valley titles in consecutive years.

Wichita State (25-9) kept it close with 3-point shooting early in its first MVC title game since 1991, but hit just 6 of 26 shots in the second half and shot a season-low 32 percent overall. Now, the Shockers will have to wait an agonizing week before learning their NCAA tournament fate.

Clevin Hannah had 12 points for Wichita State, which needed this win far more than Northern Iowa.

The Panthers were probably going to get into the NCAA tournament no matter what happened. The Shockers? They won 25 games and finished second in the Valley, but a 12-6 conference mark and a weak nonconference schedule leaves them on the bubble.

Northern Iowa set a school record with 15 conference wins in the regular season and, after surprising losses to Bradley and Evansville down the stretch, was back in form at the Valley tournament. Northern Iowa held Drake and Bradley to 40 points each in the first two rounds, getting plenty of time to rest its starters.

Wichita State figured to present a stiffer challenge.

The Shockers split two regular-season games with Northern Iowa, pulling out a grinding 60-51 win in Wichita on Jan. 19 to knock the 20th-ranked Panthers out of the polls.

Both games were low-scoring - neither team had more than 60 points - which isn't too surprising coming from the Valley's two best defensive teams.

The title game started off that way. Wichita State missed its first six shots and needed 4½ minutes to score. Northern Iowa had its share of trouble against the Shockers' man defense, opening 1 for 9 from the field.

Then came the 3s.

Northern Iowa's Jake Koch hit two, then Anthony James made it three in a row. Wichita State's Graham Hatch hit two straight of his own, followed by another by Demetric Williams. The teams went a combined 10 of 22 in the first half, the last one by Williams with 2 seconds left putting the Shockers up 31-28.

Wichita State made a short run to go up 39-33 in the second half, but the Panthers turned up the defensive pressure and all but shut Wichita State down, reeling off the game-defining run that sent them back to the NCAA tournament.