Green Bay Clinches No. 1 Seed; Perry's Career Night Keeps YSU in Home Game Hunt

#HLMBB Scoreboard (Feb. 20)
Youngstown State 88, Milwaukee 83 (ot)
#rv/-- Green Bay 67, Valparaiso 53

On opposite ends of the Horizon League geographic spectrum, the emotions were similar in both Green Bay and Youngstown State: elation and relief.

For the Phoenix, Thursday night marked the end of an 18-year drought as Green Bay clinched the No. 1 seed for the upcoming Horizon League men's basketball tournament and no worse than a share of the regular season title after a 67-53 victory over visiting Valparaiso.

As for the Penguins, the day began with Kendrick Perry earning Second Team Academic All-America honors and ended with the senior posting a career-high 35 points as Youngstown State won a topsy-turvy game with Milwaukee, 88-83, in overtime.

While Green Bay wrapped the No. 1 seed, Youngstown State won its second straight game to move into a three-way tie for fifth place in the Horizon League with three regular season games left to play.

#rv/-- Green Bay 67, Valparaiso 53
A 12-0 run early in the second half provided all the cushion #rv/-- Green Bay needed to snap an 18-year drought, as the Phoenix clinched a share of the Horizon League regular season title and the tournament's No. 1 seed with a 67-53 win over Valparaiso at the Resch Center.

Green Bay (22-5, 12-2 Horizon) had not been the No. 1 seed for the conference tournament since 1996 and the Phoenix has not hosted the tournament since 1998. To do so, Green Bay had to go through the two-time defending regular season champion Crusaders, who had handed the Phoenix one of its two conference losses on the year.

Leading 30-27 at the half, Green Bay saw its lead evaporate on the first possession of the second half, as a Jubril Adekoya 3-pointer knotted the game. From there, however, the Phoenix scored the next 12 points to assume control of the game.

On Senior Night, it was one of two Phoenix seniors that ignited the run, as Alec Brown drilled a wing 3-pointer to restore Green Bay's lead. Carrington Love would then factor into the next five points, as a steal led to a Keifer Sykes layup before Love converted a 3-point play to push the edge to eight, 38-30.

Two Sykes free throws and a Love jumper would cap the run 3:27 into the half and force a Valparaiso timeout.

The closest Valparaiso would draw the remainder of the game was four points, but with the Crusaders creeping within 46-42, the 7-foot-1 Brown drilled another 3-pointer to push the lead back to seven with just under 10 minutes to play.

Valpo would not draw any closer the remainder of the night.

Sykes finished with a game-high 19 points, going 11-of-12 from the free-throw line; as a team, Green Bay was 22-for-25.

Brown scored 14 points and blocked eight shots, while Jordan Fouse notched a double-double with 12 points and 10 boards. With 301 blocks, Brown is just the second in League history to reach 300 and is just eight from matching Damian Eargle's conference record.

Alec Peters and Jubril Adekoya had 11 points apiece for the Crusaders

Green Bay will host the tournament as long as it remains. The Resch Center will host the 2nd Round on Friday, March 7, and semifinals on Saturday, March 8. Should the Phoenix advance, the championship game will be played in Green Bay on Tuesday, March 11.

Youngstown State 88, Milwaukee 83 (ot)
Kendrick Perry scored a career-high 35 points and Ryan Weber had a clutch five points late in overtime to lift Youngstown State to a big 88-83 win over Milwaukee on at the Beeghly Center.

Perry was 11-of-17 from the field, including 5-of-9 from behind the 3-point line and made 8-of-13 from the free-throw line. His previous career-best scoring performance was 34 against North Dakota State in December 2012. He also had nine rebounds, five assists and four steals.

He scored six points in overtime, but Weber knocked down a 3-pointer with 1:54 left and followed with a hanging 10 footer with 1:05 remaining that gave the Guins the lead for good at 84-83.

Following Weber's second basket, UWM's Kyle Kelm couldn't connect and Perry grabbed the board. With 19.6 seconds left, Perry converted both free throws to extend the lead to 86-83. Kelm again misfired, this time from behind the 3-point line with 14 seconds left and Cole grabbed the board and was fouled. He split the pair at 11.9 and on the ensuing possession, UWM turned the ball over. Cole again made one free throw with 5.9 seconds left for the final outcome.

YSU had four players finish in double figures with Perry's 35, Kamren Belin and Bobby Hain each had 14 and Cole finished with 11 to go with nine assists.

The win improves the Penguins to 15-13 overall and 6-7 in the Horizon League while Milwaukee is now 16-11 and 6-7.

YSU shot 53.3 percent for the contest making 32-of-60 shots and went 17-of-28 in the second half and overtime. Milwaukee shot 46.6 percent converting 27-of-58 attempts. Austin Arians had 28 points to lead the Panthers.

The Penguins trailed 59-49 midway through the second half when Perry led the Penguins on a 13-0 run by scoring 10 points to take a 62-59 lead with 6:33 remaining.

After a Cole layup began the run, Perry scored 10 straight to key the Penguins surge.

The Panthers tied the game up twice more over the two minutes, but the Penguins pushed the lead back to 72-68 on a Perry jumper.

Milwaukee's Steve McWhorter drilled a 3-pointer with 52.4 seconds left to tie the game at 74 after Austin Arians made a triple to make the game 72-71.

Both teams had last-minute chances to win, but turnovers stopped would-be go-ahead chances and sent the game to overtime.

The Penguins and Panthers fought through six-lead changes and eight ties during the first 20 minutes and neither team led by more than five points.

Milaukee's largest lead was four, 8-4, at the 17:44 mark. The Penguins used a 7-0 run in the later part of the have to take a 30-25 lead with 5:18 to go. Down two, Perry drained a 3-pointer and Belin and Hain each added layups for the Penguins' largest first-half advantage.

The Panthers scored seven of the next nine points to knot the game at 32-32 with 2:47 left. After a Belin jumper gave the Penguins a 34-32 edge, UWM scored four straight to close out the half with a 36-34 halftime lead.

The Penguins and Panthers both got off to hot starts going a combined 16-of-25 in the first nine minutes of the game. Youngstown State connected on nine of its first 13 field-goal attempts, while Milwaukee went 7-of-12 from the floor.

Both teams cooled off as the Penguins finished the first half shooting 46.9 percent (15-of-32) and Milwaukee ended at a 48.3 clip (14-of-29).

Perry went 4-of-6 with three 3-pointers for all 11 of his first-half points in the game's first 12 minutes.