Clutch Play Late Leads to CSU & Detroit Road Wins; Hot-Shooting UWM Wins at Home

#HLMBB Scoreboard (Jan. 14)
Cleveland State 55, Wright State 50
Detroit 69, UIC 68
Milwaukee 77, Youngstown State 62

Cleveland State 55, Wright State 50
Andre Yates hit a go-ahead three-pointer with one minute to play and Trey Lewis converted a three-point play with 24 seconds left as Cleveland State won at Wright State, 55-50, on Wednesday night in Horizon League action.

CSU improved to 10-9 overall and 4-1 in the league, while the Raiders fell to 10-8 overall (2-2 HL).

Anton Grady led the Vikings with 16 points and 10 rebounds, his second double-double in Horizon League play this year. He added three assists and two steals. Marlin Mason finished with 14 points and four rebounds, while Trey Lewis had 13 points, seven rebounds and three assists.

Charlie Lee dished out six assists, while Demonte Flannigan scored six points off the bench.

Michael Karena led the Raiders with 18 points.

"It's always a tough game when these two teams meet and tonight was no different," head coach Gary Waters said. "Both teams played extremely hard and deserved to win this game. It was a great win for us, but it's just one win and there's still a long way to go.

"I am really excited with the way we executed down the stretch. We have been teaching that every day in practice and it was great to see everyone execute tonight."

Trailing 50-48 with just over a minute to play, the Vikings worked the ball to the left wing where Yates, a Dayton native, drilled a three-pointer to give CSU a 51-50 lead. After a WSU miss on the other end, Lewis worked his way into the lane and threw a runner off the glass, drawing contact from Karena for a three-point play, extending CSU's lead to 54-50 with 23 seconds left.

The Raiders missed on the other end and Lee split a pair of free throws to provide the final margin.

CSU used strong play from its front line in the paint to take a 28-26 lead at the half as Grady, Mason and Flannigan combined for 22 of CSU's 28 first half points.

WSU opened up its largest lead of the game (49-44) with 6:43 to play, but back-to-back baskets from Lewis and Grady brought CSU within one (49-48) with 4:07 to play. Neither team would score again until Kendall Griffin split a pair of free throws with 1:31 left to give the Raiders a two-point lead.

It didn't last long as Yates' three-pointer 12 seconds later gave CSU the lead for good.

CSU held a commanding 32-21 advantage on the glass, including 11 offensive rebounds, and was 8-of-12 at the free throw line. WSU was 15-of-24 at the charity stripe.

Detroit 69, UIC 68
Jarod Williams made two free throws with 2.8 seconds remaining to give the University of Detroit Mercy men's basketball team a 69-68 with over UIC Wednesday night at the UIC Pavilion. The win is the third-straight for Detroit which improved to 3-1 in the Horizon League.

Detroit (9-9, 3-1 HL) trailed by as much as 13 in the second half and was just 9-of-21 from the charity stripe before Williams made two to complete the comeback.

Horizon League Freshman of the Week Paris Bass finished with a career-high 19 points to lead Detroit, while senior Juwan Howard Jr. scored 14 and Chris Jenkins added 13.

Milwaukee 77, Youngstown State 62
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (6-12, 1-3 Horizon) shot a team-high 62 percent from the field and four players scored in double figures to lead the Panthers to a 77-62 victory over visiting Youngstown State (9-11, 0-5 Horizon) tonight at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. Milwaukee used a 23-5 run early in the first half to take control of the game and never looked back.

"I'm proud of our guys," Milwaukee Head Coach Rob Jeter said. "We've battled through a tough stretch these past few weeks, but feel that we've been getting better each day."

Youngstown State jumped out to a 10-6 lead in the first four minutes of the game before Matt Tiby opened up the aforementioned 23-5 run with a layup. Six Panthers scored as Milwaukee hit 9 of 14 shots from the field during that spurt to open up a 29-15 lead.

Milwaukee connected on a sizzling 56 percent (14-for-25) from the field in the opening 20 minutes.

A three-pointer from Cody Wichmann, his third of the night, put the Panthers on top 45-33 with 14:29 remaining but the Penguins refused to go down without a fight. Youngstown State used a 10-2 run to slice the Milwaukee lead to 47-43, but Wichmann knocked down two more triples as part of a 16-4 Panthers run that gave the hosts a 63-47 cushion and control of the contest.

After shooting 56 percent from the field in the first half, the Panthers improved that mark by draining a remarkable 14 of 20 attempts (70 percent) in the second stanza.

Akeem Springs led all players with 18 points, on 8 of 10 shooting. Steve McWhorter recorded his third double-double of the season by finishing with 16 points, 13 of which came in the second period, and a career-best 12 assists to only one turnover, while Wichmann drained 5 of 6 attempts from beyond the arc to snap out of a shooting slump and finish with 15 points. Not to be outdone, Tiby totaled 13 points and 12 boards for his fifth double-double of the year and he extended his consecutive-game streak with double-digit points to nine.

Marcus Keene scored 15 points to lead Youngstown State