Men’s Basketball Schedule
Friday, Jan. 27:
UIC at Detroit, 7 pm ET – Horizon League Network
Loyola at Wright State, 7 pm ET – Horizon League Network
Saturday, Jan. 28:
Valparaiso at Milwaukee, 2 pm ET – Horizon League Network Game of the Week (check local listings) | Horizon League Network | ESPN3
Butler at Green Bay, 7 pm ET – ESPNU
Cleveland State at Youngstown State, 7:05 pm ET – Horizon League Network
One of three teams will be on top of the Horizon League come Sunday morning: Cleveland State, Milwaukee or Valparaiso. That much is certain. But starting on Friday night, the standings could see plenty of shifting as five key Horizon League games get underway.
At Calihan Hall, Detroit (11-11, 5-5 Horizon) will look to stay hot and gain a measure of revenge when UIC (2-8, 6-14) pays a visit. In the teams’ first meeting of the year, it was the Flames who captured a 63-59 victory at the UIC Pavilion.
Detroit, 4-1 in its last five games, has climbed into a tie for sixth place in the Horizon League, one game behind Butler, against whom it presently holds a tie-breaker.
Known as one of the top offensive teams in the conference, the key for the Titans of late has been their defense. Detroit has put the clamps down defensively in its last two contests, holding Wright State to 53 points last Saturday and Loyola to 52 points Wednesday. That total against the Ramblers marked a season-low for the Detroit defense which has held opponents to under 60 points six times this year. In those games, the Titans hold a 5-1 record.
The matchup will feature the Detroit duo of Ray McCallum and Chase Simon against the UIC backcourt of Gary Talton and Daniel Barnes. Talton and Barnes were instrumental in the Flames’ December win over the Titans, with Talton posting 21 points and Barnes 14 in the win.
McCallum and Simon, meanwhile, are combining for nearly 30 points per game, 9.3 rebounds and 6.3 assists per contest. In conference play, McCallum has upped his contributions, averaging 15.6 ppg, 5.5 rpg and 3.9 apg.
UIC is out for its first road win in League play since Feb. 27, 2009, a streak of 23 games.
Looking for its first win in Horizon League action, Loyola (5-15, 0-10 Horizon) treks to Wright State (10-12, 5-5 Horizon) for a matchup with the Raiders. Wright State will be looking for the series sweep after blitzing the Ramblers, 64-48, in December.
In that meeting, Wright State forced 21 Loyola turnovers, leading by as much as 27 points midway through the second half. Stopping Julius Mays will be the focal point for Loyola, as the junior returned from injury to score 33 points in Thursday’s win over UIC. Mays had 23 in the victory against the Ramblers.
In December, Wright State clamped down on Ben Averkamp, limiting the junior to just five points on 2-of-9 shooting as the forward battled through foul trouble. In the post, Walt Gibler led the Ramblers with 12 points, with eight of those coming at the free throw line.
Friday's game figures to be a low-scoring affair featuring plenty of defense as Loyola (55.2 ppg) and Wright State (58.8 ppg) are the two lowest-scoring teams in the Horizon League.
Saturday could see the lead in the Horizon League change hands, with either Valparaiso (14-8, 7-3 Horizon) or Milwaukee (14-8, 7-3 Horizon) putting themselves in position to claim a share with a win in the Horizon League Network Game of the Week.
Milwaukee, after stumbling on the road last weekend, rebounded by locking down defensively in Thursday’s 53-42 win over Butler, flipping a switch at the 10:00 mark of the first half to hold the Bulldogs to just 21 points the rest of the way. The Panthers will attempt to do the same to a Valparaiso squad that comes into Saturday averaging 72.1 ppg on the year, the second-best mark in the Horizon League.
The Panthers were able to control the pace in the teams’ first meeting of the year, a 57-55 win at Valpo on Dec. 29. In that one, it was a late Kaylon Williams three that hit the rim, backboard and rim again before falling and lifting Milwaukee to the win. A sweep by Milwaukee would give them a valuable chip down the stretch in what could be another battle to the end of the Horizon League season.
Williams was not the scoring star in Thursday’s win, but the preseason first team point guard assisted on 11 of Milwaukee’s 21 field goals, lifting his assist percentage to 43.82, the fifth-best mark in the nation.
Ryan Allen, Kyle Kelm and Tony Meier will be tasked with stopping Valparaiso’s Ryan Broekhoff and Kevin Van Wijk, arguably the top tandem in the Horizon League. Allen is Milwaukee’s top defender and will likely draw the versatile Broekhoff; the Aussie enters Friday third in the Horizon League in scoring at 14.9 ppg while ranking first with 8.9 rpg. Van Wijk has assumed the League lead in scoring with 15.7 pgg and is shooting 62.6 percent from the floor.
The Crusaders will come into Saturday’s game a hungry squad after a 75-60 loss at Green Bay on Thursday.
8-1 at the Resch Center, Green Bay (8-12, 4-6 Horizon) will be looking for a sweep of the weekend when Butler (12-10, 6-4 Horizon) pays a visit on Saturday. The game will be aired on ESPNU at 7 p.m. ET.
The Phoenix played their most complete game of the season in Thursday’s win over Valpo, putting four starters into double figures. Kam Cerroni was able to stretch the defense, draining five three-pointers to post 23 points, while Alec Brown and Brennan Cougill controlled the paint. Brown matched the Green Bay career record for blocks with two in the game, giving him 132 in a year and a half, while Cougill recorded a 14-point, 10-rebound double-double.
In the teams’ first meeting, Brown struggled with foul trouble but managed wo lead the team with 13 points. Cougill snared 13 rebounds led all players, but it was one of Butler’s freshmen who hit the biggest shot in the Bulldogs’ 53-49 win on Dec. 29. Kameron Woods turned a 49-47 lead into a 52-47 advantage with 20 seconds left.
In Brian Wardle’s three games against Butler, Green Bay has gone toe-to-toe with the Bulldogs, but are yet to come away with a win. In last year’s game at the Resch Center, Matt Howard’s layup as time expired lifted Butler to the victory.
This year, it will be on Andrew Smith, Khyle Marshall and Woods to match up with Brown and Cougill down low. Smith has been Butler’s leading scorer throughout the year, leading a balanced Butler attack with 10.6 ppg on the year. In conference play, however, it has been Ronald Nored emerging as the Bulldogs’ leading scorer with 11.5 ppg. The senior is also pacing Butler in rebounding (5.2 rpg) and assists (4.7 apg) in 10 League games.
In Saturday’s nightcap, Youngstown State (11-8, 6-3 Horizon) hosts its biggest game since joining the Horizon League when northeast Ohio rival and Horizon League leader Cleveland State (17-4, 7-2 Horizon) visits the Beeghly Center.
The Penguins won this season's first match-up, 73-67, in the Wolstein Center on New Year's Eve, serving notice that they were to be taken seriously in League play. Damian Eargle recorded a double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds, earning one of YSU’s four League player of the week honors, while Cleveland native Ashen Ward scored 12 of his 15 points in the second half.
Since that loss, the Vikings have won five of their last six games and have been one of the country’s top road teams all year. Cleveland State has posted a 9-3 record away from the Wolstein Center and is 8-2 in "true" road games. The eight road wins are tied for the most in the nation, while CSU's nine wins away from home are the third most in the country.
The matchup on Saturday night pits one of the country’s top three-point shooting teams against a team that has been red hot from beyond the arc of its last nine games. The latter team in that discussion is Cleveland State, who has hit on 75-of-171 (.439) during the span, including at least 10 threes in four of the games.
In the Vikings’ 83-57 drubbing of Milwaukee, Cleveland State went 7-for-13 from beyond the arc, but put six players into double figures in a balanced attack. Tim Kamczyc led the way, going 4-of-4 from three-point range; over the last three games, Kamczyc is 15-for-16 from the floor.
The former, obviously, is Youngstown State. Hitting 39.2 of their attempts on the year, the Penguins rank 28th nationally in three-point shooting; Blake Allen, who went a ridiculous 10-of-13 from three-point range last week in garnering player of the week accolades, is presently hitting 46.3-percent of his attempts, 11th nationally.
In Horizon League play, three Penguins – Ward (48.9), Allen (46.0) and DuShawn Brooks (45.9) are all hitting better than 45 percent of their attempts from three-point range.
A win by Cleveland State would keep the Vikings one-half game ahead of the Milwaukee-Valparaiso winner, more importantly, a game up in the loss column. Youngstown State, meanwhile, could move into a tie with the Vikings at 7-3 in League play and own the season series with its eighth home win of the year.
Tags: All Teams - Men's Basketball · Horizon League - Men's Basketball
