VALPARAISO, Ind. (AP) — Spencer Haldeman drained a late trey to give Northern Iowa enough cushion to hold off Valparaiso 68-63 on Tuesday night.

Haldeman’s 3-pointer with 47 seconds left gave the Panthers a 62-56 lead. Tevonn Walker answered with a 3 for Valparaiso to close to 62-59. Haldeman then made two free throws and Bennett Koch finished the scoring with four straight free throws.

Koch was 8 of 8 from the floor, while making 9 of 14 free-throw attempts to total 25 points, which gave him 1,000 points for his career with Northern Iowa (14-15, 6-11 Missouri Valley Conference). Haldeman and Klint Carlson added 11 points apiece.

The Panthers led throughout the second half but could never break free as the Crusaders remained within striking distance. They closed to 59-56 with 2:01 remaining after Markus Golder drilled a 3 and Walker followed with a layup. Bakari Evelyn had 19 points to lead Valparaiso (14-16, 5-12), which is in last place in the conference.

Northern Iowa will play in an opening-round game at the MVC tournament for the first time since 2003. The bottom four seeds (7th to 10th place) will play on March 1 to open the tournament in St. Louis. The highest seed UNI can achieve is No. 8.

The Exira-EHK Spartans played a phenomenal first half against the St. Albert Falcons on Tuesday night in a District 14 Semifinal, but faded in the second half of a 56-41 loss. The Spartans raced out to a quick 6-0 lead and held the advantage by the end of the first quarter 13-8. The Falcons tied the game at 19 late in the second quarter and then hit two big shots to take their first lead of the game and head to half with a 24-19 advantage. Kyle Barnes hit a three that gave them the lead and then Reed Miller hit a falling down put back before the first half buzzer to give the Falcons the 5 point halftime lead.

The second half turned in the Falcons favor as they ramped up the defensive intensity. The Spartans couldn’t find open looks on the offensive end in the second half and fell behind by 9 at the end of the third 40-31. The Spartans continued fought hard but couldn’t get the lead under 8 the rest of the way.

Jake Carley had a nice night for the Falcons with 20 points and Tyler Blaha finished with 16 points. St. Albert improved to 13-9 and will face Stanton on Thursday in the District 14 Final.

Exira-EHK was led by 18 points, 8 blocks, and 5 rebounds from Dakota Rold. The Spartans finish the season with a 15-8 record.

The CAM Cougars played a tight game with the Stanton Vikings on Tuesday night at St. Albert High School but couldn’t make enough plays down the stretch in a 62-57 Viking victory. The game was tight early and tied at 18 at the end of the first quarter. Stanton pulled away a bit at the end of the half and led 33-27 at the break. The Vikings lead was 45-38 by the end of the third. The Cougars tied the game at one point of the fourth quarter 52-all but the Vikings grabbed the lead right back and built a six point lead with around a minute to go. The Cougars cut it to three on a Nic Holste triple and then sent Stanton to the line for a one-and-one try. Easton Blunt missed the free throw but the Cougars failed to get the rebound and Stanton wound down some time until Donnie Weis was fouled. Weis sunk two free throws to ice the victory.

CAM got a huge night from Senior Thomas Hensley as he dropped in 31 points, grabbed 6 rebounds, and had 2 steals. Nic Holste had 13 in his final outing as a Cougar as well. CAM ends their season with a record of 16-6.

Stanton was led by 21 point nights for both Drake Johnson and Donnie Weis. Dillion Rocha was just shy of a double-double with 8 points and 11 rebounds. Stanton improves to 21-1 and they will move on to the District 14 Final against St. Albert on Thursday night at 7:00pm at Riverside High School.

Girls Regional Finals

Class 4A

Region 1: LeMars 56, Denison-Schleswig 29
Region 8: Lewis Central 47, Bishop Heelan 28

Boys Substate Quarterfinals

Class 3A Substate 8 @ Harlan

Creston 69, Carroll 65 OT
Harlan 68, Perry 56

Class 4A Substate 1

Sioux City West 60, CB Thomas Jefferson 47

Boys Class 1A District Semifinals

District 14 @ St. Albert

Stanton 62, CAM 57
St. Albert 56, Exira-EHK 41

District 13 @ Red Oak

Nodaway Valley 69, Sidney 57
Bedford 54, Southwest Valley 45

District 15 @ IKM-Manning

Tri-Center 70, Ar-We-Va 58
IKM-Manning 57, Boyer Valley 41

District 16 @ Kingsley-Pierson

St. Mary’s, Remsen 64, West Monona 49
Kingsley-Pierson 42, Woodbury Central 40

Boys Class 2A District Finals

District 1 @ Denison-Schleswig

Kuemper Catholic 67, Logan-Magnolia 46

District 12 @ Winterset

Van Meter 64, I-35 49

District 15 @ Dallas Center-Grimes

Woodward-Granger 66, Des Moines Christian 63

District 16 @ CB Thomas Jefferson

Treynor 52, Underwood 34