Cor-J Cox had 19 points and 11 rebounds Friday night to help MVSU defeat Arkansas-Pine Bluff 71-64 in the SWAC tournament semifinals.
Paul Crosby added 18 points and Amos Studivant had 14 points and nine rebounds. MVSU advances to Saturday's championship game, where they will play No. 2 seed Texas Southern (15-17), a winner over Alcorn State 60-55 in Friday's first semifinal.
The Delta Devils (20-12), the regular-season SWAC champs, suffered their only conference loss last weekend. But they barely got past No. 8 seed Jackson State 63-60 on Wednesday, and didn't take the lead for good against Arkansas-Pine Bluff until Studivant's basket with 5:29 left made it 60-59.
Mitchell Anderson led Arkansas-Pine Bluff (10-23) with 19 points. Daniel Broughton had 12 points and nine rebounds for the fifth-seeded Golden Lions.
