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Midwest Sports Headlines: 3/18/19

Sports

March 18th, 2019 by Ric Hanson

Here is the latest Mid-America sports news from The Associated Press

MOLINE, Ill. (AP) — Alexa Willard scored a career-high 30 points and second-seeded Missouri State ended No. 21 Drake’s 12-game winning streak with a 94-79 victory in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament for the Bears’ 15th NCAA Tournament berth. Sydney Manning added 14 points, Brice Calip 13 and Danielle Gitzen 12 for the Bears (23-10), whose last win over a ranked team was against No. 5 Duke in the 2001 Sweet 16.

UNDATED (AP) — The Atlantic Coast Conference comes into the NCAA Tournament with three No. 1 seeds, but no league has put three teams in the Final Four since 1985. That year, Georgetown and St. John’s arrived as Big East behemoths, only to be upstaged when conference rival Villanova took the title. The ACC’s top-seeded trio this year is Duke, North Carolina and Virginia.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — North Carolina earned the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Region, but that’s about the only gift the Tar Heels got for the NCAA Tournament. Their path to the Final Four could include games against Kansas just down the road from the Jayhawks’ campus in Lawrence, and a matchup with second-seeded Kentucky in the regional finals.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Zion Williamson and Duke are the overall No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Blue Devils sit atop the East Region, and their road to Minneapolis could include matchups with ACC rival Virginia Tech _ which beat Duke without Zion _ and Big Ten champion Michigan State.

NEW YORK (AP) — Saint Louis rallied from a15-point, first-half deficit, locking down St. Bonaventure in the second half for a 55-53 victory in the Atlantic 10 championship and an NCAA Tournament bid. The sixth-seeded Billikens won four games in four days to earn their first A-10 Tournament title since 2013 and get back in the NCAAs for the first time since 2014.

JUPITER, Fla. (AP) — Back tightness is expected to keep St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Matt Carpenter out of the lineup until Wednesday. Carpenter first noticed the issue on Saturday, when he wasn’t scheduled to be in the lineup. The 33-year-old Carpenter hit .257 with 36 homers last season.