CSU & Valpo Cruise to Victory on Wednesday Night

Men's Basketball Scoreboard (Nov. 19)
Cleveland State 60, Jacksonville State 46
Valparaiso 91, IU South Bend 55
#3/4 Wisconsin 84, Green Bay 60
Bowling Green 70, Wright State 55
IUPUI 70, Milwaukee 68
Western Michigan 82, Oakland 71

Cleveland State 60, Jacksonville State 46
Cleveland State used a sizeable run centered around halftime and three players scored in double figures in a 60-46 win over Jacksonville State on Wednesday night in the Wolstein Center.

The game was part of the Global Sports Showcase.

The Vikings improved to 2-1 this season, while JSU fell to 0-3.

Kaza Keane led the Vikings with 13 points and six rebounds, while Marlin Mason finished with 10 points and eight rebounds. Anton Grady added 12 points and four rebounds, while Vinny Zollo hit a pair of three-pointers en route to eight points.

Terrell Hales provided a spark off the bench with two points, seven rebounds (six offensive) and three steals.

"This wasn't a very pretty game, but the positive is that we played tough defense and held them to 35-percent shooting," head coach Gary Waters said. "We need to get better at capitalizing on what we do to the other team and execute better."

Leading 22-19 with six minutes to play in the first half, the Vikings used a strong finish to the half to take a 34-21 lead into the locker room. The half was capped with a 70-footer from Keane at the buzzer as the Viking defense limited to Gamecocks to just two free throws over the final six minutes, those coming with 1.3 seconds left.

"We just focused on what coach Waters told us in the huddles at the end of the half," Keane said. "We wanted to get five stops and when we did that, we wanted to get five more."

CSU extended its lead to 15 points (44-29) on a three-pointer from Keane with 14 minutes left, which started a 12-3 run. Mason capped the spurt with a three-pointer that gave the Vikings a 53-32 advantage.

JSU answered with 10 straight points to pull within 53-42 with six minutes left, but Mason hit two free throws to stop the run and the Gamecocks would not get any closer the rest of the night.

The Vikings dominated on the glass, outrebounding JSU, 39-24,

The Vikings are back in action on Saturday (Nov. 22) when CSU continues play in the Global Sports Showcase with a 4:00 p.m. contest at Savannah State.

Valparaiso 91, IU South Bend 55
Valparaiso placed six players in double figures on Wednesday evening at the ARC as the Crusaders rolled to a 91-55 victory over IU South Bend.

Leading the way for the Crusaders on Wednesday was freshman David Skara (Zadar, Croatia/Ekonomska Skola Zadar), who scored 17 points on 6-of-9 shooting in the winning effort.  Skara added five rebounds and also handed out a game-high six assists without committing a turnover.

Sophomore Alec Peters (Washington, Ill./Washington) poured in 14 points in just 17 minutes of action as he went 5-of-7 from the floor, while also grabbing five rebounds.  Senior Vashil Fernandez (Kingston, Jamaica/Princeton Day [Md.] Academy) picked up his third career double-double, scoring 13 points on 4-of-6 shooting and 5-of-6 from the foul line.  Fernandez pulled down a game-best ten rebounds as well, six of which came on the offensive end, and tallied three of the Crusaders’ six blocked shots.

Rounding out the group of six in double figures were a trio of players with ten points.  Junior Keith Carter (Maywood, Ill./Proviso East [Saint Louis]) went 4-of-5 from the field for his ten points and added five rebounds, while fellow junior Darien Walker (Chicago, Ill./Simeon [John A. Logan/Arizona Western]) chipped in ten points and six rebounds off the bench.  Freshman Tevonn Walker (Montreal, Quebec/Vanier College) added ten points as well on 4-of-6 shooting.

Valpo shot 54.7% (35-of-64) from the floor on Wednesday and hit 10-of-24 from behind the 3-point line.  The Crusaders enjoyed a tremendous edge on the glass, out-rebounding IUSB by a 50-22 margin – including 18 offensive rebounds which they converted into 27 second-chance points.  Valpo also dominated in the paint, holding a 40-18 edge inside over the Titans, and got 49 points from its bench.

IUSB held a brief early lead, but the Crusaders claimed the lead for good on a mid-range jumper from Carter with 18:10 to play in the first half.  Valpo took control in a four-minute stretch midway through the first half, as leading 14-7, the Crusaders posted a 14-0 run, jump-started by back-to-back dunks from Darien Walker, to go ahead 28-7 with 10:11 to go in the period.  The lead never fell under double figures the rest of the way, and reached as much as 22 points in the first half before the Crusaders eventually took a 47-29 edge into halftime.

Valpo left no doubt with the start to the second half, scoring the first 11 points – five of which came from Tevonn Walker – over the opening four minutes of the stanza to push the lead to 58-29.  The lead grew to as high as 42 points as the Crusaders cruised to the win.

Oosha Mitchell led IU South Bend, an NAIA Division II program which was playing the game as an exhibition, with 12 points, while Jacob Foster added 10 points.  The Titans shot just 33.9% from the floor, but did match the Crusaders with ten triples.

Bowling Green 70, Wright State 55
The Wright State men's basketball team led by one at the break, but a 13-2 run midway through the second half proved to be too much to overcome as Bowling Green pulled away for a 70-55 decision Wednesday afternoon at the Stroh Center.

WSU trailed 9-2 early, but chipped away at the deficit and eventually took the lead for the first time at 18-16 on a Mark Howell three with 5:49 remaining in the half.  The Raiders extended the margin to as much as five on two different occasions before the Falcons closed the period by scoring the final four points to trail 28-27 at the break.

Wright State shot 42 percent in the opening 20 minutes, including five of 14 from three-point range, but was only one of two at the free throw line while Bowling Green shot 39 percent, one of four from behind the arc, and was eight of 10 at the stripe.

A 6-1 burst early in the second half gave BGSU a 45-39 lead, but the Raiders closed to within three at 49-46 on a Michael Karena jumper at the 10:10 mark.

From there, however, the Falcons took control with a 13-2 run and held WSU without a basket for the remainder of the contest.

Bowling Green shot 45 percent from the field in the second half, includng four of seven from three, to end up at 43 percent overall while Wright State shot just 23 percent the final 20 minutes to finish at 33 percent.  The Falcons led 30-16 in points in the paint and 14-3 in second-chance points.

Chrishawn Hopkins led the Raiders with 13 points while Joe Thomasson had a near double-double of nine points and nine rebounds.  Karena and Reggie Arceneaux each had eight points as did Grant Evans off the bench.

Zack Denny paced Bowling Green (2-0) with 18 points off the bench while Spencer Parker had 14.

IUPUI 70, Milwaukee 68
J.R. Lyle and Steve McWhorter scored 19 points apiece for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (1-2), but IUPUI (1-2) overcame a nine-point, second-half deficit and held off a late Panthers rally to earn a 70-68 victory at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena tonight.

"It is disappointing to lose at home. We battled in the first 20 minutes. It was good to see J.R. play well and I thought Steve was gutsy coming back in after the injury," Milwaukee Head Coach Rob Jeter said. "We've been shooting too many threes and have to get something going inside and we have to be better at the free throw line."

Milwaukee used a 16-7 run in the first half to open up a 30-17 lead, its largest of the game, and Lyle's jumper at the 6:51 mark capped that spurt. IUPUI fought back and was able to nearly cut the deficit in half, getting within 38-33 before McWhorter banked one off the glass just before the horn to give the Panthers some momentum going into the half.

An early second-half hoop by Matt Tiby gave Milwaukee a nine-point advantage but a technical foul was called on the Panthers and the complexion of the game began to change. The Jaguars went on a 15-6 of their own to tie the game at 48, but Milwaukee countered with six straight points to reclaim the lead.

With Milwaukee clinging to a 59-58 lead, IUPUI scored seven unanswered points, the final three coming on D.J. McCall three-pointer, to grab a 65-59 advantage.

The Panthers made things interesting in the waning second of the game and pulled within a point on Cody Wichmann's three-pointer with 11 seconds remaining. Two Archie Mason free throws extended the Jaguars' lead to 70-67 before Khufu Najee was whistled for intentionally fouling McWhorter, who split the foul shots.

With a chance to tie or win the game, Milwaukee was unable to cleanly in-bound the ball, giving the Jaguars the victory.

In addition to his career-high 19 points, McWhorter added five rebounds, four assists, three blocks and a pair of steals, while Lyle grabbed five boards. J.J. Panoske contributed 10 points, seven rebounds, and two blocks.

IUPUI, which received 31 points from its bench, was led by DavRon Williams' 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Western Michigan 82, Oakland 71
Connar Tava scored 21 points and Tucker Haymond added 19 as Western Michigan defeated Oakland 82-71 on Wednesday night.

The pair combined to hit 15 of 20 shots as the Broncos (2-0) shot 57 percent, making 29 of 51 shots, including 9 of 18 3-pointers. Western Michigan also went 15 of 17 from the foul line with Tava, who also grabbed 10 rebounds and had five assists, hitting all seven of his free throws.

Tommie McCune led Oakland (0-3) with a career-high 27 points. Kahlil Felder had 14 points, eight assists and four steals.

Thomas Wilder scored the last two baskets of the first half to give Western Michigan a 35-29 lead. The Golden Grizzlies were within four in the second half when Kellen McCormick made back-to-back 3-pointers for a 10-point Bronco lead.

Freshman Femi Olujobi posted an old-fashion three-point play to tie the score at 65, but the Broncos went on a quick 8-0 run to seize control of the game.