ST. LOUIS – Missouri Valley Conference Freshman of the Year All Wright scored a game-high 29 points, including the go-ahead bucket with 48 seconds left, leading No. 11 Valparaiso (15-18) to a 64-63 upset of No. 3 seed UNI (20-12) in the final quarterfinal game of the 2025 State Farm MVC Tournament Friday night at Enterprise Center.
Valparaiso becomes the first 11-seed to reach the MVC Tournament semifinals, advancing to Saturday’s second semi, a 5:00 pm clash against No. 2 seed Bradley (25-7), which earned a 70-62 win against No. 7 seed Murray State Friday night.
Wright scored 20 of his 29 in the first half, then played late-game hero by helping the Beacons avoid the second-largest meltdown in MVC Tourney history. The Beacons saw a 19-point lead with 14:57 remaining vanish during a 20-0 UNI run in a span of 6-minutes, 46-seconds. Wright gave Valpo a 62-60 lead with 1:57 remaining and then delivered the deciding basket with a contested drive down the right side of the lane with 48 seconds left.
Tytan Anderson cut the UNI deficit to 64-63 by splitting two free throws with 39 seconds remaining. Wright missed a 3-point try at the end of the shot clock with 13 seconds remaining and Anderson had two chances for the win, but Cooper Schwieger swatted his first layup attempt out of bounds with 3.5 seconds left and UNI’s leading scorer was strong with the final attempt from short range as time expired.
Schwieger complimented Wright’s performance with his third consecutive double-double: 18 points and 10 rebounds to go along with five blocked shots.
Anderson paced the Panthers with 22 points and UNI also got a double-digit scoring effort from Trey Campbell (11). Ben Schwieger led UNI with eight rebounds.
Both teams started cold, combining to make just 1-of-14 field goal attempts during the game’s opening media segment as UNI took a 2-0 lead into the first break at 15:30. The Panthers found their stride coming out of the timeout, making four of their next five field goal attempts to pull out to an 11-3 lead and force still cold-shooting Valpo (1-for-11) to call timeout.
Finding the going tough in the lane, Valparaiso turned to the long-range game to unlock the rim. Three straight triples from Wright, Cooper Schwieger and Tyler Schmidt helped the Beacons close to within 15-14, before Wright’s third 3-pointer of the half gave Valpo its first lead, 20-18, with 6:49 left in the period. Wright then converted an old-fashioned 3-point play around a timeout with 6:21 left, using Valparaiso’s first 2-point basket and the resulting free throw to extend the lead to 23-18.
Valparaiso completed the first half with only three 2-point possessions, two free throws by Schmidt with 11:18 left in the half, a transition follow-slam by Cooper Schwieger with 2:37 left and Wright’s pull-up jumper with four seconds left. The Beacons finished the half 10-of-15 (.667) from 3-point range and three of their five 2-point buckets were of the “and-1” variety with made free throws to follow each. Scoring 25 points in the final 6:21, Valpo took a 43-32 lead into halftime, despite shooting just 5-for-18 (.278) from inside the 3-point line.
UNI shot 52.0 percent (13-of-25) from the field in the first half, but the Panthers could not keep up with Valparaiso’s 3-point barrage during the first 20 minutes.
Although the Beacons became less reliant on scoring in threes during the second half, Valparaiso kept up the offensive pressure early in the period, particularly from the Wright/Schwieger duo. With 14:57 left in the half, the Valpo combo alone was outscoring UNI, 41-37 (Wright with 25 points and Schwieger 16), keying a 56-37 lead.
The Panthers came out of the media timeout with 14:57 left fighting, though, using a 7-0 run in a span of just 1-minute, 30-seconds to slice their deficit to 12, 56-44. The run grew to 10-0 on an Anderson 3-point play with 12:33 left to trim the UNI deficit to single digits, 56-47, and the Panthers gained even more momentum when a personal foul on Cael Schmitt was reversed in favor of a flagrant foul against Kaspar Sepp. Schmitt converted the two free throws after the video review to close to 56-49 with 11:12 remaining. Valparaiso’s next possession resulted in another flagrant foul call against Schwieger and Anderson converted the two free throws to pull the Panthers within 56-51 with 10:40 left. Campbell made it a 17-0 run, getting the Panthers to within 56-54, when he buried a 3-pointer on the ensuing possession and the comeback was complete when Schmitt drained a wing 3-pointer for a 57-56 lead with 8:11 left.
Darius DeAveiro’s first basket of the game ended the run and put Valpo back in front, 58-57, with 6:42 left and the game remained locked in a back-and-forth affair down the stretch.
