Final Minutes Determine #HLMBB Games

Men’s Basketball Scoreboard (Jan. 25)
Cleveland State 69, Valparaiso 50
Oakland 76, UIC 75
Youngstown State 68, Wright State 67

Cleveland State 69, Valparaiso 50
Cleveland State had five players in double figures and head coach Gary Waters tied the CSU record for career wins by a coach as the Vikings defeated Valparaiso, 69-50, on Saturday afternoon in the Wolstein Center.

Waters, who won for the 149th time at CSU, tied Ray Dieringer for the most wins by a CSU head coach. It was Waters' 320th career victory.

CSU improved to 13-9 overall and 5-3 in the Horizon League, while Valparaiso fell to 12-9 overall and 4-3 in the league.

Anton Grady paced the Vikings with his fourth double-double of the season and the eighth of his career with 13 points and 11 rebounds. It was his third double-double in the six Horizon League games he has played.

Trey Lewis led all scorers with 17 points, adding four assists, while Marlin Mason added 12 points and three blocked shots. Bryn Forbes scored 12 points and Jon Harris tallied 11 points, the 11th time CSU's sixth man reached double figures this year.

Lavonte Dority and Alec Peters tied for game-high honors for Valpo with 10 points each, while Yeo added eight points off the bench.  Freshman Jubril Adekoya led the Crusaders with seven rebounds as CSU matched Valpo on the glass, 31-31 – just the second time in league play the Crusaders have not held the advantage on the boards.

The Crusaders hit four of their first seven shots from the field to build an early 10-5 lead five minutes in. However, the Viking defense clamped down, holding Valparaiso to just 1-of-17 from the field for the rest of the half in building a 31-20 lead at intermission.

CSU took its first lead of the game at the 13:20 mark of the first half on a Harris three-pointer. It was part of a 20-3 run that helped the Vikings open up a 12 point lead (25-13) when Harris threw down an alley-oop from Charlie Lee with 7:38 to play.

The first half lead reached as many as 13 points (29-16) on a Lewis layup with 5:13 to play in the half.

The Vikings held Valpo to 5-of-24 (.208) shooting from the field in the opening half and outscored the Crusaders in the paint, 12-0.

Forbes and Grady scored buckets to open the second half and push the CSU lead to 17 points (37-20) and the Crusaders would get no closer than 13 points the rest of the afternoon as CSU's lead swelled to as many as 22 points late in the game.

CSU shot .455 (25-55) from the field, while holding the Crusaders to a 16-of-45 (.356) effort. The Vikings committed just eight turnovers, while forcing Valpo into 16 miscues.

Oakland 76, UIC 75
With 4.4 seconds left to play and the Flames in front by two, Oakland's Duke Mondy dribbled the length of the court and sank a game-winning three as time expired.  After the referees reviewed the buzzer-beater for several minutes, they upheld their original call as Oakland (8-14, 3-4) slipped past UIC (5-16, 0-7) by final of 76-75.

Senior Jordan Harks paced the Flames with a career-high 21 points on 8-of-9 shooting, while senior Kelsey Barlow recorded 20 points, seven rebounds and seven assists.  Barlow now has six 20-plus point performances on the season.

Oakland's leading scorer was freshman Kahlil Felder with 21 points, including 17 in the second half.  Senior Travis Bader drilled five treys to record 19 points, needing just eight more threes for the all-time NCAA record.

UIC led the majority of the game and held a 40-31 advantage at halftime.  The Flames built that lead up to 12 points with just over 13 minutes left to play.  That's when Oakland started to apply full-court pressure and forced UIC to commit 13 second-half turnovers.  The Grizzles capitalized and scored 24 points off of Flames' miscues in the second period alone.  Oakland outscored UIC in that category by a margin of 31-11 on the day.

Barlow gave UIC a two-point edge with 57 seconds on clock after a pair of made free throws.  Both teams traded turnovers and Oakland had the ball with 22 ticks remaining.  OU's Felder then nailed a 15-footer to knot the score 73-73 with 10 seconds left.  Pat Birt was fouled on the opposite end and headed to the foul line for a double bonus with 4.4 seconds remaining.  The freshman sank both shots to give UIC a two-point lead before Mondy hit the game-winner.

Youngstown State 68, Wright State 67
Down four in the final minute, the Wright State men's basketball team rallied and had a chance to win at the end, but came up short as Youngstown State held on for a 68-67 Horizon League win Saturday night at the Beeghly Center. The Raiders missed a would-be game-winning tipin just before the buzzer and that proved to be the difference.

The Penguins had a four-point advantage in the final 11 seconds, but Wright State's Matt Vest knocked down a 3-pointer from the corner with 10.7 ticks left. After the first YSU pass was deflected out of bounds, the Raiders stole the next pass and called timeout with 5.8 seconds left.

On the ensuing play, DJ Cole deflected a driving attempt, but the ball found a wide-open JT Yoho under the basket. Yoho's attempt at a game winner as time expired rimmed out and the Guins held on for the big win.

The win improves the Penguins to 13-9 overall and 4-3 in the Horizon League. Wright State falls to 13-10 and 5-3 in the league.

YSU scored the first eight points of the contest before Tavares Sledge got the Raiders on the board with a layup at the 13:20 mark of the first half.  The Penguins extended their lead to 27-16 on a Ryan Weber basket with 4:44 remaining, only to see WSU close out the period with an 11-6 run, five of those coming from Reggie Arceneaux, to trail just 33-27 at the break.

Youngstown State shot 50 percent in the first half while the Raiders shot 46 percent.

A Kendall Griffin three gave WSU its first lead of the day at 36-35 with 15:17 to play in the second half and neither team had more than a three-point advantage until back-to-back Weber triples helped give the Penguins a 49-44 edge with 10:30 to go.

Kamren Belin's three at the 3:45 mark made it 60-54, but back came Wright State with a JT Yoho three and a Matt Vest jumper to close to within one.  AJ Pacher then tied at 62 on a three-point play with 1:54 left.

The Penguins looked to be in control as back-to-back AJ Cole layup made it a four-point game with 37 seconds left, but Chrishawn Hopkins hit two foul shots at the 29.3-second mark and, following two Weber free throws at 19.5 seconds, a Vest three from the right corner drew the Raiders to within one.
A turnover gave WSU one final shot with 5.8 seconds left, but the Raiders came away empty on two attempts as time expired.

Wright State shot 59 percent from the field the final 20 minutes to end up at 52 percent overall while the Penguins ended up at 50 percent.  YSU, though, was 17 of 22 at the foul line compared to 11 of 16 for WSU.

Pacher led the Raiders with 15 points, all but two coming in the second half, while Vest had a near double-double of 10 points and nine rebounds.  Yoho added 10 off the bench.

Kendrick Perry and Weber each had 18 for Youngstown State while Belin had 15.