Men's Basketball Scoreboard (Jan. 4)
Cleveland State 74, UIC 69
Detroit 83, Milwaukee 67
Valparaiso 79, Youngstown State 64
Cleveland State 74, UIC 69
Anton Grady recorded his 11th career double-double and Charlie Lee scored 16 second half points as Cleveland State earned a 74-69 victory over UIC on Sunday afternoon in Horizon League action.
The Vikings improved to 8-8 overall and remained perfect in the Horizon League at 2-0, while UIC fell to 5-12 overall and 1-1 in the league.
Grady finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds, while Lee had 18 points and five assists, moving into ninth place on the all-time list at CSU for career assists. Marlin Mason added 12 points and four blocks, while Trey Lewis had 11 points and four assists.
"I wasn't happy with the way the game ended, but it's a road win and it's nice to start Horizon League play with two wins," head coach Gary Waters said. "They were playing five guards at the end of the game and hit a few shots. Overall, I was pleased with our pressure defense which allowed us to build a lead. Anton and Charlie played great games and Marlin was strong until he fouled out late."
Marc Brown finished with a game-high 21 points for UIC.
CSU, which shot better than 80-percent (23-28) from the floor in the second half of Friday's win over Milwaukee, continued its torrid pace in the opening 20 minutes today, hitting 15-of-20 (.750) from the field.
That included a 3-of-4 effort from three-point.
The Vikings took an 11-5 lead six minutes in on back-to-back dunks by Mason and Grady, but the Flames rallied to take their first lead of the game, 18-17, on a Jay Harris layup six minutes later.
CSU came right back, using a 9-2 run, capped by a Grady three-point play, to take a 26-20 lead with five minutes left in the half. UIC was able to get within three (29-26) with 2:30 to play, but the Vikings scored eight of the final 10 points of the half, including a three-pointer from the corner at the buzzer by Lewis, to give CSU a 37-28 halftime lead.
The Vikings maintained a nine point lead (49-40) eight minutes into the second half, but five straight UIC points helped cut the lead back to four points. Lee took over from there, scoring 16 of the next 18 CSU points and assisting on another basket as the Vikings opened up their largest lead of the game (62-48).
The Flames used a late barrage of three-pointers and three free throws by Marc Brown after he was fouled on a three-point attempt to slice CSU's lead down to four points (73-69) with 13 seconds left, but a Lewis free throw pushed the lead back to five as the Vikings held on for a road win.
CSU shot a season-high .591 (26-44) from the floor, the second straight game CSU shot better than 55-percent from the floor.
Detroit 83, Milwaukee 67
Juwan Howard Jr. led the way with 26 points – 20 in the second half - as the University of Detroit Mercy used a big run in the first half to open a lead it would never give back in defeating defending Horizon League champion Milwaukee, 83-67, on Sunday afternoon inside historic Calihan Hall. The win ended UDM's six-game slide as it moved to 7-9 overall and 1-1 in the Horizon League.
Howard Jr. also had five rebounds and a team and game-high six assists. Anton Wilson netted 12 points with five rebounds and three assists, while Paris Bass added 14 points and four boards.
It was a slow start offensively for both teams as Detroit was 1-of-7 from the field, while Milwaukee (5-11, 0-2 HL) was 1-of-3 with a few turnovers. Both teams would go back and forth, but the Titans – after five lead changes – jumped out in front, 12-11, midway through the period off a layup from Brandan Kearney. Jaleel Hogan then hit a jumper and was fouled finishing it off with a free throw for a 15-11 lead with 9:20 left in the first.
Milwaukee would knot it at 15-all, but Detroit then scored 13-straight points for a 28-15 advantage at the 4:32 mark. Five Titans scored during that spurt which started off a Bass basket. Howard Jr. added two buckets, Wilson and Carlton Brundidge had baskets, while Chris Jenkins drained a three. Defensively, UDM held the Panthers to 0-of-5 shooting with two turnovers in that stretch.
Jenkins would hit another three later on and the Titans would take a 37-27 lead at the break.
Detroit shot 53.1 percent in the first half (17-of-32) compared to Milwaukee's 40.0 percent, but the Titans forced eight turnovers that they turned into 10 points.
It was more of the same in the second half as the red, white and blue used an 8-0 run to open its largest lead of the game, 47-29, with 15:58 left. Howard Jr. started that with the old fashioned three-point play and Brundidge finished it with a layup off a strong rebound and pass from Bass.
Milwaukee would cut it to 10, 54-44, but Howard Jr. was just too much as he hit an off balanced jumper and then the next time down the court, he floated a pass to the rim that Bass caught and slammed down igniting the Titan crowd and giving the home squad a 58-44 advantage with 9:49 remaining. Detroit later extended it to 15, 66-51, off a Wilson three and he would connect for another to push it to 16, 71-55, with just over five minutes left as the Titans cruised the rest of the way for the 17-point triumph.
UDM ended the game shooting 51.5 percent (34-of-66) with 18 assists on its 34 baskets, while outrebounding the Panthers, 38-23. Detroit also has a 13-1 advantage in second chance points and a great showing by the bench outscoring Milwaukee's, 32-10.
Valparaiso 79, Youngstown State 64
The Valparaiso men’s basketball team earned its first win in Horizon League play on Sunday afternoon at the ARC, locking down on defense over the final eight minutes and using one of its top rebounding performances in recent history to take down Youngstown State, 79-64.
A layup by YSU’s Larry Johnson cut the Crusaders’ lead to 61-58 with 8:13 to play, but following that basket, Valpo locked down. The Penguins would not hit another field goal for the remainder of the game, going 0-of-10 from the field and committing four turnovers over the last eight minutes of the contest. YSU’s final six points all came from the free throw line.
Valpo would score just two field goals in that same stretch, but they came back-to-back at a key juncture, helping the Crusaders pull away. The Crusaders’ lead, which had been as much as ten points in the second half, was just 64-60 as the clock ticked under five minutes. But, in the theme of the day, Valpo made a second chance count, as off a miss, sophomore Alec Peters (Washington, Ill./Washington) grabbed the rebound in traffic, went back up and scored while fouled. Peters completed the old-fashioned 3-point play to push the lead to seven points.
Then, after a YSU miss on the other end, junior Keith Carter (Maywood, Ill./Proviso East [Saint Louis]) grabbed the rebound – completing his first career double-double – and initiated a fast break, capping off the push with a lob to junior E. Victor Nickerson (Atlanta, Ga./Norcross [Charlotte]) for the slam to make it 69-60 Crusaders with 4:20 to play. Valpo made sure that the Penguins would be unable to get any closer than seven points the rest of the way, going 10-of-12 from the foul line following the final media timeout to secure the win.
It was a struggle for the Crusaders shooting the ball on Sunday, as Valpo finished the game just 27-of-77 (35.1%) from the floor and hit just 5-of-24 from 3-point range. But the Crusaders more than made up for it on the glass, crashing the boards and grabbing 27 offensive rebounds – exactly half of their available misses, and the most offensive rebounds by a Valpo team in at least 25 years. Those offensive rebounds were converted into 28 second-chance points, as Valpo out-rebounded Youngstown State 58-38 overall and out-scored the Penguins in the paint, 40-20.
Despite the shooting woes, the Crusaders never trailed in the win, as Peters scored 10 points in the game’s first four minutes to stake Valpo to an early lead. A 12-5 spurt midway through the first half, featuring baskets from five different Crusaders, pushed the advantage to double figures at 26-16 with 10:24 to play in the half. YSU replied with an 11-2 run over the next six minutes to close within one point, but Carter scored eight points over a stretch of 1:23 to send the lead back to eight points. The Crusaders eventually took a 40-35 lead into the halftime break.
Valpo scored 10 of the first 15 points out of the halftime break to again make it a double-digit lead at 50-40 with 16:04 to play, with Carter and senior Vashil Fernandez (Kingston, Jamaica/Princeton Day [Md.] Academy) both contributing two baskets during that span. The Penguins went on a 9-2 spurt over the next three minutes, however, to cut the lead back down to single figures, where it remained until the game’s late stages.
Peters paced Valpo with 18 points, while the sophomore added nine rebounds and three assists. Carter scored 15 points on 6-of-12 shooting, including three 3-pointers, and grabbed 10 rebounds for his first career double-double. The junior posted four assists and did not commit a turnover for the second time in the last three games, as the Crusaders finished with just five total team turnovers.
Junior Darien Walker (Chicago, Ill./Simeon [John A. Logan/Arizona Western]) chipped in 12 points - going 7-of-8 from the foul line in the closing minutes - grabbed eight rebounds, handed out three assists and blocked a pair of shots. Fernandez paced all players on the boards, pulling down 13 rebounds, just one off his career best. Eight of Fernandez’s boards came on the offensive glass, while he also posted eight points and three blocked shots.
Youngstown State (9-8, 0-2 Horizon) was led by 13 points apiece from DJ Cole and Bobby Hain, as four Penguin starters finished in double figures. YSU shot just 37.3% for the game, and after hitting 6-of-9 3-point attempts in the first half, the Penguins were just 2-of-9 from the deep in the final 20 minutes.
