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It didn’t quite work out that way, but a key Bulldogs putback basket was just enough for eternally poised Drake to survive a staunch upset bid and hold on for a 57-50 win Saturday in a Missouri Valley Conference tournament semifinal at Enterprise Center.

Forward Cam Manyawu’s putback with 1:42 to play put Drake up 52-50, an edge the Bulldogs held for good as Belmont missed its last five shots of the game after leading most of the game.

The Bulldogs (29-3), led by Ben McCollum in his first year at Drake after 15 years and four national titles at Northwest Missouri State, advanced to Sunday’s championship game, a game they need to win to avoid a long wait and possible NCAA Tournament snub.

Belmont, normally poor defensively, took a different defensive approach than it had all season, head coach Casey Alexander said, which slowed Drake in the first half, made its offense stagnant and perturbed McCollum.

“I was coaching a little frustrated that first half," McCollum said, crediting assistant Josh Sash with critical advice to set him straight. "We dialed back in. We stopped coaching so frustrated. I did, at least."

Bennett Stirtz, the league’s player of the year and one of four Northwest Missouri State transfers who start for Drake, steadied things when the Bulldogs needed it most.

Stirtz began the second half with a personal 8-0 run that erased most of the Bulldogs’ nine-point halftime deficit. Drake didn’t take its first lead of the game until just under 10 minutes remained.

"Belmont guarded as well as I've seen them all year,� McCollum said. “I thought they had a great game plan. I thought they were fantastic, how they competed, really stymied us out of the gates. Coming out of half, we just went one-on-one to just try to get some offense, get into the paint a little bit more, and it seemed to work OK.�

Stirtz, who finished with a game-high 24 points, also drew eight fouls on Belmont, not counting the technical on Belmont coach Casey Alexander, who was upset at a foul Stirtz had drawn on a Belmont defender late in the game.

"He just earned them,â€� Alexander said. “ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ weren't defensive mistakes or breakdowns or bad execution or anything like that. It's a great player making plays. And that just kind of gave them some rhythm and some momentum.â€�

Drake, the MVC’s best rebounding squad, lost the board battle Saturday for just the second time in the last two months, but McCollum isn’t concerned with what that portends for Sunday’s title game.

“I think it was more Belmont than us,� McCollum said. “So we just need to be a little bit better next game, for sure.�

Drake’s defense, which struggled early, arrived late, holding the Bruins to 29.6% shooting in the second half after the Bruins topped 50% in the first.

McCollum credited Isaiah Jackson, another Northwest Missouri State transfer, for locking down Belmont’s second-leading scorer Carter Whitt, who finished with six turnovers and eight points.

"He's as good a defender as there is in this league in my opinion,� McCollum said. “I'd say the whole team did a great job, and they did. But when you take away Carter Whitt, it takes away a lot of stuff, and he single-handedly, to a certain level, took him out of the game.�

The first half may have made onlookers wonder which team had the league’s best defense and which ranked in the bottom half of Division I.

Drake trailed 30-21 at halftime, hitting just 2 of its 13 3-point tries. Mitch Mascari missed all four of his, the last one barely grazing the rim and prompting Mascari to yell in frustration. Mascari, who is one of the NCAA's better 3-point shooters, finished with one point.

Belmont (22-11), meanwhile, was shredding Drake’s best-in-the-Valley defense early with cuts and drives to the basket while burying 3-pointers. The bounces were going Belmont’s way, as well. The Bruins banked in a 3-pointer from deep in the corner early on and watched as another jumper that bounded off the rim three times dropped through.

Drake, which will face Bradley for the title on Sunday and is going for a third straight Arch Madness title, something done by only one other team, Southern Illinois in the mid-1990s.

The even-keeled Bulldogs aren't ready to celebrate yet after Saturday’s win, their 29th of the season.

“It doesn't sound like much right now because tomorrow that doesn't mean anything,� Daniel Abreu said of reaching 29 wins. “It sounds like zero-zero to me. That's my mindset going into it.�

No. 2 seed Bradley 70, No. 11 seed Valparaiso 65

Valparaiso’s magical run has come to an end.

The 11th-seeded Beacons, who pulled upsets on the first two days of the tournament thanks to the play of freshman sensation All Wright, wilted in the closing minutes in a 70-65 loss to No. 2 seed Bradley in Saturday’s second semifinal.

Bradley point guard Duke Deen curled around a screen and hit a tie-breaking 3-pointer with 2:45 to play in a thrilling back-and-forth battle between the preseason league favorite and a team that, by seed, should’ve been eliminated two days ago.

Valpo didn’t score in the final 2:20 and didn’t make a field goal in the final 6:30.

Beacons starting guard Darius DeAveiro was helped off the court and into the tunnel with an apparent knee injury with two minutes to play, taking some wind out of the Beacons’ sails.

Forward Darius Hannah led Bradley (26-7) with 16 points and 12 rebounds.

Wright, the league’s freshman of the year, had 18 points in the first half Saturday, two shy of his first-half total the previous night. The Beacons (15-19) led by as many as 11 in the first half and were up three at halftime. Wright finished with 24

Bradley’s win sets up a rematch of the league’s top two teams in Sunday’s title game. Bradley and Drake split the regular-season meetings, with each winning on the other’s homecourt. Three weeks ago, the Braves won 61-59 in Des Moines on a Hannah dunk with 10 seconds to play.