ST. LOUIS (AP) — Leon Bond III had 19 points to lead Northern Iowa to a 73-69 upset victory over No. 2 seed Bradley on Saturday in the semifinals of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.
No. 6 seed Northern Iowa will play No. 5 seed UIC in the championship game on Sunday with an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament on the line. UIC beat No. 9 seed Drake 72-51 in an earlier semifinal.
Bond shot 7 of 8 from the field and 3 of 4 from the free-throw line for the Panthers (22-12). Trey Campbell totaled 13 points, six assists and four steals. Ben Schwieger scored 10.
Timoty van der Knaap finished with 12 points and six rebounds for the Braves (21-12). Bradley also got 11 points and three steals from Corey Thomas. Ahmet Jonovic finished with 10 points.
Bond put up 13 points in the first half for Northern Iowa, which led 45-32 at the break.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.