ST. LOUIS -- Southern Illinois was struggling entering the

Missouri Valley Conference tournament, having dropped three of

four.

So much for momentum.

Randal Falker's 17 points and career-high 16 rebounds powered a

59-46 victory over Bradley in the championship game on Sunday,

leading the Salukis to their fifth straight berth in the NCAA

Tournament.

"Man, this is the greatest," said guard Matt Shaw, who scored

14 points. "This is what it's all about. Not many people gave us a

chance, but we did."

Jamaal Tatum added 16 points for second-seeded Southern Illinois

(22-10), which won the tournament for the first time since 1995.

Chris Lowery became the first member of the Valley to win a

championship as player and coach.

Lowery was the point guard for Southern Illinois' championship

teams in 1994 and '95, and he mentioned that to his team at

halftime. The Salukis made it to the final after beating Northern

Iowa in overtime in the semifinals.

"I talked about playing in the tournament and what that was

like, and to be able to sit back for a week and have everybody talk

about you and people seeing how great you are," Lowery said.

"It's a much better feeling than sitting on pins and needles and

seeing what seed you are going to be."

Southern Illinois is one of six Valley teams with RPI rankings

of 41 or lower, with a fifth-best ranking of 38, and conference

commissioner Doug Elgin said after the game he's hopeful of getting

as many as five bids -- two more than the previous best. Bradley,

28th in the RPI, believes it is in strong position.

"I'm probably not well-versed enough on the process other than

to think that the way this team has been playing the last three or

four weeks, I find it hard to believe that we're not one of the top

34 teams around the country," coach Jim Les said. "It's just

going to make for a long week, I can tell you that."

Southern Illinois started the second half with a 17-2 run and

ended Bradley's seven-game winning streak. The Salukis took the

title one season after a frustrating four-year run in which they

won the regular-season title but then lost in the conference

tournament. Bradley hasn't won the tournament title since 1988.

Patrick O'Bryant had 16 points for Bradley (20-10), the fifth

seed, which upset top seed Wichita State in the semifinals.

O'Bryant hit his first six shots, three of them dunks, but was

quiet after absorbing a hard foul by Tony Young with 4 minutes to

go in the first half. He had only three points and one rebound the

rest of the way.

"I don't really feel like we hit the wall," O'Bryant said.

"They just made the plays and we couldn't make those plays. They

got every rebound, every loose ball."

The 6-7 Falker outplayed O'Bryant, who is five inches taller. He

said it was a team effort.

"I didn't shut him down, we shut him down," Falker said. "I

tried to push him off the block so we could rotate him easier."

Marcellus Sommerville, who leads Bradley with a 15-point

average, missed eight of his first nine shots and had 11 points.

Tony Bennett had 11 points, 10 rebounds and five assists.

Falker opened the second half with a dunk and Shaw ended the run

with a jam in Southern Illinois' dominating stretch. A 24-23

deficit became a 40-26 lead with 9:59 to go. Falker, the tournament

MVP, had nine points in the run and Shaw scored six.

Bradley missed 11 of its first 12 shots in the half and scored

only three points in the first 13 minutes. The Braves made a late

push on a pair of 3-pointers by Bennett in a span of 15 seconds

that cut the gap to 44-38, but Southern Illinois answered with

eight straight free throws in the next 1:06.

"We're a team that makes a run at some point in the game," Les

said. "Unfortunately, our run came late when we had dug ourselves

such a big hole."

The game was delayed for several minutes late in the second half

when a Southern Illinois cheerleader crashed to the floor during a

routine. Kristi Yamaoka was carted off on a stretcher wearing a

pair of braces, but waved to the crowd.