#HLMBB Scoreboard (Jan. 23)
Cleveland State 70, Detroit 66
Green Bay 51, Valparaiso 50
Cleveland State 70, Detroit 66
Anton Grady, Charlie Lee and Trey Lewis combined for 60 points and Cleveland State maintained a hold on first place in the Horizon League with a 70-66 win over Detroit on Friday night in the Wolstein Center.
CSU moved to 12-9 overall and 6-1 in the Horizon League. The Vikings will be tied for first place in the league with the winner of tonight's Valparaiso-Green Bay game as both teams entered the game with 5-1 league records.
Detroit fell to 10-11 overall (3-3 HL).
Lewis scored 30 points, his second 30-point game this season, hitting five three-pointers. Grady notched his 14th career double-double and third straight with 15 points and a career-best 14 rebounds, adding four blocked shots, while Lee finished with 15 points and five boards.
Lewis also grabbed eight rebounds.
The Vikings were playing without two starters as Andre Yates missed the game with an ankle injury and Marlin Mason sat out due to illness. It snapped a streak of 103 straight games for Mason, as well as 53 consecutive starts.
Kaza Keane and Vinny Zollo drew starting assignments and provided good minutes. Keane scored just two points, but had four rebounds and four assists, while Zollo grabbed four rebounds in his first career start at CSU.
Kenny Carpenter added four points off the bench, while Derek Sloan produced two rebounds and two assists in 20 minutes.
The Vikings used 16 first half points from Lewis to take a 30-28 lead at the half, despite missing 10 of their 14 free throws in the opening stanza.
Detroit opened the second half on a 15-4 run to take a 43-34 lead at the 14:11 mark, but CSU responded with a 14-4 run that was capped with a Kenny Carpenter runner to bring the Vikings back within a point (48-47).
Five straight points by Detroit extended the Titan lead back to five (52-47), but Lewis scored six straight points and Lee hit a three-pointer from the right wing to give the Vikings a 56-52 lead with just over four minutes to play.
The lead would reach nine points (64-55) with one minute to play on a pair of free throws by Lewis and the Vikings iced the game by hitting their final 10 free throws, six by Lee and four by Lewis.
The Vikings held a 42-36 advantage on the boards, despite playing without Mason, their second leading rebounder. CSU also held Detroit to .373 (22-59) shooting from the field, while hitting .440 (22-50).
Freshman Paris Bass matched his career-high with 19 points for the second-straight game and recorded his second career double-double with 10 rebounds. Senior Juwan Howard Jr. scored 14 points and sophomore Chris Jenkins pitched in 12 points with seven rebounds. Sophomore guard Jarod Williams also reached double figures in scoring with 10 points, while freshman Jaleel Hogan added six points.
Green Bay 51, Valparaiso 50
olding Valparaiso (18-4, 5-2 HL) to only 18.5 percent shooting in the second half, Green Bay (17-4, 6-1 HL) remained unbeaten at home and atop the Horizon League standings with a 51-50 victory in front of 4,916 fans at the Resch Center on Friday night.
The Phoenix, now 10-0 at home in 2014-15, fell behind by as many as 10 points early (19-9), but responded to close the margin to only 34-32 at halftime.
Valparaiso remained in front until for the first five minutes of the second half, before Green Bay used a 7-0 run over the span of 5:49 to take the lead. The Phoenix went ahead for the first time when senior Alfonzo McKinnie (Chicago, Ill.) scored in the paint for a 40-39 lead with 14:51 to play.
Senior Keifer Sykes (Chicago, Ill.) drained a triple moments later and the Phoenix moved in front by four points (43-39).
At the under-eight media timeout, Valparaiso was just 2-of-20 from the field in the second half but trailed by only one point. The score would change hands six times from that point forward.
After Valpo went in front 48-47 with 2:53 remaining, Sykes immediately scored in transition to reclaim the lead. Freshman Tevonn Walker scored to put the Crusaders up 50-49 with 1:56 remaining, but the visitors failed to score the rest of the night.
On the next possession, head coach Brian Wardle drew up a play for senior Greg Mays (Chicago, Ill.), who drove down the lane and scored off the glass for what became the game-winning bucket.
Green Bay missed the front end on two trips to the free-throw line, but its stifling defense held strong. Including the 5-of-27 effort in the second half, Valparaiso finished the game shooting 34.5 percent from the field and just 2-of-10 from long range. The Phoenix did not have a block at halftime before rejecting eight shots in the second half.
McKinnie scored 11 points, grabbed eight rebounds and blocked three shots, and Sykes added 11 points and six assists. Mays fought foul trouble but finished with nine points, four rebounds and three blocks.
