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Valparaiso survives and advances, beats Loyola-Chicago in dramatic overtime [VIDEO]

The Crusaders locked up their semifinal berth into Arch Madness, and it wasn’t even the biggest stunner today

Sister Jean Delores Schmidt of Loyola University Chicago reacts during the 100th Happy Birthday celebration for Sister Jean at Lake Shore Campus. Quinn Harris-USA TODAY Sports

The Missouri Valley Conference goes by the nickname Arch Madness. And in 2020, it’s living up to the moniker.

The No. 7th Valparaiso Crusaders, who had to play an extra game last night against the Evansville Purple Aces just to reach the quarterfinals, just knocked off the No. 2 Loyola-Chicago Ramblers 74-73 in overtime in St. Louis on Friday night.

Valpo was led Ryan Fazekas with 15 points, but the Ramblers were just 14-27 from the free throw line, which was the difference tonight. The Crusaders were 5.5 point underdogs at tip-off, and +190 on the money line. Now they’ll face the winner of the Missouri State-Indiana State game tomorrow night for the chance to play in the conference finals.

Earlier today Drake pulled the biggest upset of the 2020 conference tournament season so far on the same floor with their 77-56 win over the No. 1 seed Northern Iowa Panthers.

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