The madness of March is officially on.
 
The Valparaiso University men's basketball team took its first lead since 3-2 with a go-ahead free throw with 1:17 left that made it 63-62, and that score held up as Shon Tupuola (Brownsburg, Ind. / Brownsburg [Saint Mary-of-the-Woods]) blocked a shot just before the horn to preserve the one-point win for the seventh-seeded Beacons over 10^th-seeded Indiana State in the opening round of the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament on Thursday night at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis.
 
How It Happened

• Valpo hit a pair of 3s early with Rakim Chaney (Rockford, Ill. / Rockford Auburn [212 Sports Academy) and Brody Whitaker (Greencastle, Ind. / Greencastle [University of Indianapolis / Marian) each connecting from distance. Whitaker's 3 cut what had been a 7-3 Indiana State lead to one at the 16:57 mark. After another basket, the Sycamores led 9-6 with 15:50 left in the first half.
• The Sycamores opened up an eight-point lead at 16-8 after a traditional 3-point play with 12:20 left in the first half, but Valpo responded with a five-point burst as Tupuola slammed home a second-chance dunk and Chaney drilled a trey to shrink the lead to three at 16-13. Indiana State had a five-point lead at the under-12 media timeout.  
• Valpo made five straight field-goal attempts including a game-tying triple that squared the game at 18 with 9:56 on the clock. Owen Dease (Evansville, Ind. / Evansville Reitz [Texas A&M Corpus Christi]) nailed a jumper that got Valpo back within one with 8:23 to go, and then the Sycamores stretched it back to three going into the under-8 media timeout.
• The Beacons cooled off, missing five straight shots and going 4:39 without a field goal as Indiana State built up a seven-point lead at 28-21 with 3:44 left in the first half.
• The Sycamores mounted a 12-point lead at 37-25 with seven seconds left in the first half on a 3 by Camp Wagner, but Chaney responded with a triple to beat the halftime horn, cutting the deficit back to single figures at 37-28.
• The Beacons shot 38 percent in the first half, while the Sycamores hit at a 55.2 percent clip and owned an 18-13 edge on the boards.
• Freshman JT Pettigrew (Lisle, Ill. / Bolingbrook) scored the first five points of the second half, including a 3 to start the half's scoring. Indiana State took a timeout with 18:22 left in the second half after Valpo cut the lead to four at 37-33.
• Indiana State got the lead back to double figures at 50-40 with 13:05 left in the second half after a 3 by Van Buggenhout. Valpo responded by scoring the next four, but Valpo trailed 52-44 at the under-12 media timeout.
• Valpo had four offensive rebounds on one possession with 9:33 left in regulation, leading to two free throws by Sader Servilus (Montreal, Quebec, Canada / Fort Erie International Academy) to cut the lead to seven at 55-48.
• Valpo had a stretch where it missed nine out of 10 shots from the floor. The one make was a driving layup by Dease at the 7:46 mark that cut the gap down to single figures at 58-50.
• Servilus made two free throws to trim the lead to five with four minutes to play.
• Servilus nailed a huge 3 with 2:34 on the clock to tie the game at 62, extending Valpo's run to 7-0.
• Dease made a free throw with 1:17 on the clock to put Valpo up 63-62, the team's first lead since 3-2.
• Indiana State missed a shot with 54 seconds on the clock, and then Valpo missed a 3, had an offensive rebound and missed a second shot, which came with 22 seconds left.
• Indiana State called timeout with 12 seconds to go and had a chance to shoot for the win down just one. Tupuola rejected the final shot with two seconds remaining, and the horn sounded clinching the 63-62 victory.

Inside the Game

• Chaney paced the team with 18 points, drilling four 3s and handing out five assists.
• Chaney scored in double figures for the fifth consecutive game and had his highest point total since 20 on Feb. 9 at Drake.
• Pettigrew scored 14 points and pulled down a team-high seven rebounds. He tallied double figures for the seventh straight game. He went 5-of-8 from the field.
• Whitaker scored 10 points, his third straight game in double figures and seventh time in the last eight games. Whitaker had a team-best +12 in the plus-minus.
• Valpo prevailed despite shooting 36.8 percent from the field with Indiana State shooting 46.4 percent.
• The Sycamores outrebounded the Beacons 37-35, but Valpo held a 16-12 advantage on the offensive boards.
• Valpo won the turnover battle 14-8, the team's eighth straight game with 11 turnovers or fewer and sixth time in the last seven outings in single figures.
• Servilus scored seven points and pulled down four rebounds off the bench.
• Valpo led for just 2:01 to Indiana State's 35 minutes, 15 seconds, but the Beacons led when the final buzzer sounded.
• Valpo trailed by as many as 12 points, erasing a double-figure deficit to win for the third time this season and second time against Indiana State this season. Valpo also came from 13 down against Evansville on Feb. 6.
• Valpo swept all three games from Indiana State and they were decided by a total of six points. If you look at only regulation, Valpo outscored Indiana State by a mere two points over the three games.
• Valpo upped its overall win total to 18, needing one more to tie the 2019-20 season as Valpo's highest overall win total during the Missouri Valley Conference Era and two more to clinch the team's first 20-win season since joining The Valley.
• With his seven rebounds, Pettigrew lifted his season total to 210, jumping to 13^th in Missouri Valley Conference history for rebounds by a freshman.
• Valpo has played 12 games decided by single figures in its last 13 contests. Valpo's last nine wins have all been decided by seven points or fewer. All 12 wins over MVC teams (11 regular-season, one conference tournament) have come by 10 points or fewer.
• Each of Valpo's last four games have been decided by four points or fewer, including two straight one-point games. Valpo improved to 2-2 in one-point games this year with both wins coming over Indiana State.

Up Next
Valpo (18-14) will advance to play second-seeded Bradley on Friday at 6 p.m. at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis. The game will air on the MVC-TV Network, including Fox Chicago+ and ESPN+.