No. 12 Northern Iowa 69, Illinois State 60: Seth Tuttle had 15 points and nine rebounds as the Panthers overcame an abysmal first half to rally past the upstart Redbirds at the Missouri Valley Conference championship game in St. Louis.

Nate Buss also added 15 points and Jeremy Morgan scored all nine of his points on 3-pointers during a early second-half run for second-seeded Northern Iowa (30-3), which shot 23.3 percent in the first half and trailed by as many as 18. The Panthers committed a season-low three turnovers and knocked down six of their seven triples after intermission to win the MVC tournament title for the third time in seven years.

Daishon Knight tallied 16 points, six rebounds and four assists for No. 4 seed Illinois State (21-12), which saw its six-game winning streak snapped after defeating top-seeded Wichita State in Saturday’s semifinal. Deontae Hawkins had 14 points, Justin McCloud finished with nine points on three first-half 3-pointers while Reggie Lynch contributed nine points and three blocks.

Knight and McCloud each scored nine points to help Illinois State race out to a 33-15 advantage with 2:47 left in the first half following an alley-oop dunk from Hawkins to Lynch. The cold spell that tormented Northern Iowa in the first half stung the Redbirds after the break as they missed nine of the first 10 field-goal attempts out of the break, allowing the Panthers to open the second half with a 25-4 surge behind three 3-pointers from Morgan and eight points from Tuttle.

Hawkins hit a jumper and a 3-pointer to bookend a 7-0 spurt for Illinois State and tie it at 47 with 8:12 remaining, but Buss and Matt Bohannon countered with triples of their own as Northern Iowa scored the next eight points. The Redbirds closed within five twice over the final five minutes – the last time coming on a 3-pointer by Knight with 45 seconds to go – before Bohannon and Deon Mitchell combined for six free throws thereafter to preserve the victory.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Northern Iowa, which also defeated Illinois State in the 2009 MVC championship and claimed its fourth tournament title, reached the 30-win mark for the second time in program history. … The Redbirds have lost each of their last four appearances in the Valley championship game. … The Panthers won their 15th game on the road or at a neutral site, extending their Division I-best total.