Men's Basketball Scoreboard (Nov. 28)
Cleveland State 68, Marshall 59
Valparaiso 66, Drake 46
FIU 61, Wright State 59 (OT)
Cleveland State 68, Marshall 59
Marlin Mason scored 18 points and Anton Grady added 17 – including 15 in the second half – as Cleveland State earned a 68-59 win at Marshall on Friday night at the Henderson Center.
Both teams are now 3-3 this season.
Mason, who added two rebounds and a pair of steals, hit 4-of-6 from three-point and is now 10-of-14 from long range this year. Grady added four rebounds and two steals, while Trey Lewis finished with 14 points and seven assists.
Terrell Hales came off the bench to lead the team with six rebounds.
The Vikings raced out to a 33-22 halftime lead, despite the Vikings' top two scorers – Trey Lewis and Anton Grady – each picking up two early fouls and combining to play just 15 minutes.
The hot shooting behind the arc helped CSU build the first half lead as the Vikings hit 6-of-13 (.462) from three-point over the first 20 minutes, including Mason who hit all three of his attempts en route to 11 first half points.
On the other end of the court, CSU's defense held the Herd to just 7-of-24 (.292) shooting from the field over the first half, carrying over its defensive intensity from Wednesday night at Louisville where they held the Cardinals to 45 points.
Trailing 6-5 just five minutes in, the Vikings used a Mason three-pointer to start a 20-4 run over the next eight-and-a-half minutes that allowed CSU to take its largest lead of the half (25-10) at the 6:22 mark on a Vinny Zollo three-pointer.
Ryan Taylor scored six quick points to open the second half and held the Herd cut CSU's lead to five points (35-30). But a steal by Kaza Keane led to an alley-oop from Lewis to Mason that started an 8-2 spurt as the Vikings lead grew back to 11 points (43-32) on a pair of Lewis free throws.
The Herd would not go away, scoring the next nine points to slice the lead to two points (43-41) with 8:31 to play.
Grady took over on the offensive end for CSU, scoring nine of the Vikings next 11 points on a wide array of post moves and a baseline jumper to help keep CSU in front and a pair of Lewis three-pointers and another from Mason in the span of 1:40 helped seal the game for the Vikings.
Valparaiso 66, Drake 46
For the third consecutive game, Valparaiso never trailed, as the Crusaders rolled to a 66-46 victory over Drake in both teams’ opener at the Challenge in Music City in Nashville, Tenn. on Friday evening.
The Crusader defense was strong all game, but was at its best over the opening ten minutes, as Valpo limited Drake to just three points in that stretch. The Bulldogs went just 1-of-7 from the field over that stretch, while the Crusaders forced Drake into five turnovers over the first 25% of the game as well.
Offensively in the opening minutes, the Crusaders got baskets from freshman Tevonn Walker (Montreal, Quebec/Vanier College) and senior Vashil Fernandez (Kingston, Jamaica/Princeton Day [Md.] Academy) on two of their first three possessions to claim a lead they would never relinquish. Nearing the halfway mark of the first half, Valpo scored seven points in three trips – thanks to a putback from sophomore Jubril Adekoya (Tinley Park, Ill./Andrew) and back-to-back baskets, the second a 3-pointer, from sophomore Alec Peters (Washington, Ill./Washington) – to push its edge to 13-3 and force a Drake timeout.
The Bulldogs rallied a bit and would close to within five points on a few occasions, but Valpo always kept the lead at least at two possessions. The advantage would be eight points at the half at 29-21, thanks to a pass from freshman David Skara (Zadar, Croatia/Ekonomska Skola Zadar) to Peters for a layup inside the final minute. The Crusaders owned an eight-point halftime edge despite going just 1-of-11 from 3-point range in the opening 20 minutes, as they were strong inside, going 11-of-15 from inside the arc.
Junior Darien Walker (Chicago, Ill./Simeon [John A. Logan/Arizona Western]) almost single-handedly put away the Bulldogs to start the second half. After the Crusaders had an empty possession on their first trip, Walker scored on three straight times down the court, sinking a pair of 3-pointers around a fast-break layup off a nice feed from junior Keith Carter (Maywood, Ill./Proviso East [Saint Louis]) to push Valpo’s lead to 14 points just over two minutes into the second half. Walker then drained another triple two minutes later to make it 41-23 Crusaders.
Carter would then pick up where Walker left off, hitting two 3-pointers in a three-possession span a few minutes later as Valpo’s lead grew to over 20 points. Carter added a third 3-pointer with 5:12 to play, making it 62-38 Valpo as the Crusaders cruised in the late stages.
Walker and Carter combined for 23 of Valpo’s 37 second-half points as they finished as the Crusaders’ two leading scorers on the night. Walker went 7-of-14 from the field for a game-high 19 points, while Carter went 5-of-8 for 15 points while also handing out three assists without any turnovers. Peters added ten points, all of which came in the first half, and six rebounds as well.
After hitting just 1-of-11 from downtown in the first 20 minutes, the Crusaders were 6-of-10 from deep in the second half. Valpo finished with a slight 33-30 edge on the glass over the Bulldogs, led by seven boards from Fernandez. The Crusaders took care of the ball extremely well on Friday, turning it over just four times – the lowest total by a Valpo team in recent history.
Jordan Daniels led Drake (1-4) with 18 points off the bench, but was the only Bulldog to finish in double figures. The Crusaders limited Drake to just 35% shooting from the field and forced 15 turnovers, converting those into 16 points.
FIU 61, Wright State 59 (OT)
The Wright State men's basketball nearly pulled off a miracle comeback, down five with 30 seconds left in overtime, but came up short in falling 61-59 to Florida International Friday afternoon at the Spartanburg Marriott Upstate Classic.
It was all Panthers in the early going as they built a 13-point advantage on three different occasions in the first half, the final being 28-15 on an Adrian Diaz layup at the 4:08 mark.
WSU, though, closed the first half with a 7-3 run, four coming from Reggie Arceneaux, to only trail 31-22 at the break despite shooting 32 percent from the field in the first half compared to 52 percent shooting for FIU, who was also seven of nine at the foul line while Wright State was two of five.
The Raiders carried that momentum into the start of the second half, scoring nine of the first 10 points of the period, six by Michael Karena, to cut the deficit to 32-31. Wright State then took its first lead since it held an early 5-3 advantage at 47-46 as Chrishawn Hopkins connected on a three with 5:46 left.
WSU held the lead down the stretch and was up 52-50 as Arceneaux hit one of two free throws at the 17.5-second mark, but a Dennis Mavin layup with 4.2 seconds left sent the game into overtime.
A JT Yoho three put the Raiders up 55-54 with 4:11 to play in overtime, but that turned out to be the only lead Wright State would have in the extra period as Florida International would score the next four points.
FIU looked to be in control as Daviyon Draper hit a pair of foul shots with 30 seconds remaining to go up 61-56, but Yoho answered with a three and Arceneaux came up with a steal to give WSU one last chance. The Raiders, though, could not come up with a shot before time expired.
Florida International shot 42 percent for the game compared to 35 percent for Wright State, but the bigger difference came at the foul line as the Panthers were 21 of 28 overall, including seven of eight in overtime, while the Raiders were 11 of 19, one of four in the extra period.
Yoho had a near double-double of 16 points and nine rebounds to lead WSU and also dished out five assists while Chrishawn Hopkins had 13 points and Joe Thomasson 11 points and seven rebounds.
Mavin paced Florida International (4-2) with a near double-double of 24 points and nine boards while Diaz added 19 points and eight rebounds.
Tags: Cleveland State - Men's Basketball · Horizon League - Men's Basketball · Valparaiso - Men's Basketball
