#HLMBB Teams Post 7-1 Saturday

Men’s Basketball Scoreboard (Nov. 30)
Detroit 65, South Florida 60
Green Bay 67, Tulsa 59 (Great Alaska Shootout)
Cleveland State 78, Ball State 55
Wright State 85, Western Carolina 77
Milwaukee 84, UMKC 79
Valparaiso 94, Cincinnati Christian 58
Oakland 86, Rochester College 51
Austin Peay 88, Youngstown State 86

Horizon League men's basketball teams collected seven wins on Saturday, as Green Bay took third place in the Great Alaska Shootout, while Detroit grabbed a key win at South Florida. Milwaukee added its sixth win away from home, while Cleveland State, Wright State, Valparaiso and Oakland all won games at home.

Detroit 65, South Florida 60
Detroit used an early second half run to grab its second-straight road win of the season, 65-60, over South Florida at the Sun Dome.

USF led 31-23 at the half before Detroit (4-4) used a 17-5 run to take a lead they would not relinquish.

The Titans were led by forward Juwan Howard Jr. and freshman guard Jarod Williams with 12 points apiece, while Evan Bruinsma add 11 points to go along with a team-high eight rebounds. Patrick Onwenu added nine points and six rebounds off the bench, while sophomore guard Carlton Brundidge pitched in eight points.

South Florida (4-2) opened the game with a quick 8-0 run, before Brundidge and freshman guard Matthew Grant responded with five points of their own to trim the lead to 8-5 with 14:42 left. The Bulls then extended their lead out to 12-5, before the Titans responded with a 12-4 run, capped off by a layup from senior forward Jermaine Lippert, to take their first lead of the game 17-16 with 6:56 left.

Both teams then exchanged baskets over their next two possessions before USF put together an 11-0 run to build the largest lead of the game, 29-19, with 2:51 left in the half. The Titans answered back with four-straight points from Onwenu, including a thunderous put back dunk, to make the score 31-23 as both teams entered their locker rooms. Bruinsma led the Titans with six points, while Onwenu and senior forward Jermaine Lippert had four points apiece.

The Titans opened the second half with a 7-0 run, including back-to-back layups from Brundidge and Howard, to trim the Bulls lead to 31-30 with 16:41 left. After a USF bucket extended its lead back to three, the Titans responded with an 8-3 run to take a 38-36 lead with 13:40 left. Detroit would extend its lead to as much as six, twice including, 51-45, with 7:36 left.

The Bulls would trim Detroit's lead to one, 58-57, with 54 seconds remaining, but that was as close as the score would get as the Titans made 7-of-8 free throws down the stretch to secure the win.

Detroit only shot 32.8 percent (19-of-58) overall, including 18.2 percent (2-of-11) from downtown, but made 25-of-28 from the charity stripe, while USF only made 15-of-23, including 11-of-19 in the second half.

The Bulls shot 38.2 percent (21-of-55) overall, just 16.7 percent (3-of-18) from beyond the arc. Detroit turned the ball over 10 times in the first half, bit only three time in the second stanza, while also winning the battle on the boards 44-35, including 17-11 on the offensive glass.

South Florida was led by Martino Brock, who finished with a game-high 16 points, while Victor Rudd scored 11 points and grabbed a game-high nine boards.

Green Bay 67, Tulsa 59
Less than 24 hours after losing in the Great Alaska Shootout semifinals, Green Bay bounced back to pick up third place with a 67-59 win over Tulsa.

Green Bay (4-2) trailed at the half, but Keifer Sykes took over in the second half to lead the Phoenix to its second win in three days in Anchorage. With 25 points, Sykes became the 149th player in Horizon League history to reach 1,000 career points. Sykes currently has 1,011 career points, becoming the third-fastest player in Green Bay history to 1,000.

Sykes added nine assists, and combined with his 6 field goals, helped account for 15 of Green Bay’s 22 baskets in the game.

Despite shooting just 37.3 percent on the night, Green Bay locked down on Tulsa, holding the Golden Hurricane to a 30.0-percent mark (18-of-60).

Greg Mays and Alec Brown joined Sykes in double figures with 12 and 11 points, respectively.

Down 29-26 after 20 minutes, Green Bay worked itself back into the lead behind Sykes and Brown. Early in the second half, Brown scored eight of his 11 points, with his 3-point play putting the Phoenix up, 43-41.

Tulsa would tie the score once more, but consecutive buckets from Mays gave Green Bay a lead it would not relinquish.

Leading 47-46 with just over eight minutes to play, Sykes took over, converting three layups, including a 3-point play, to give Green Bay its largest lead of the game at the time, 54-49, with 6:30 remaining.

Tulsa continued to hang around, but freshman Turner Botz would restore Green Bay’s five-point lead with a key 3-pointer with 2:24 left. Sykes would hit 8-of-8 free throws in the final 1:21 to seal the result.

Cleveland State 78, Ball State 55
Trey Lewis scored a career-high 23 points and Cleveland State shot 63-percent from the field to claim a 78-55 victory over Ball State in the Wolstein Center.
Lewis, who was making his second straight start with Charlie Lee sidelined with a knee injury, made 7-of-10 from the field, including both of his three-pointers, to break his old career-high effort of 19 points done during his freshman season at Penn State. He added five rebounds and four assists.

Cleveland State (4-3) received 15-point efforts from both Bryn Forbes and Jon Harris, with Harris adding eight rebounds off the bench. Anton Grady finished with 11 points and six rebounds.

The Vikings shot 62-percent (13-of-21) from the field in the opening half and were even better in the second half, hitting 14-of-22 (63.6 percent) from the floor.

The 63-percent effort was CSU's best shooting night since the Vikings were 25-of-37 (67.6 percent) in a win at Loyola on Feb. 3, 2012.

The Vikings scored the first eight points of the game and opened up a 14 point lead, 23-9, with 8:41 to go in the first half on a Lewis free throw. CSU's defense was stingy over the first 12 minutes, holding Ball State to a 3-of-13 effort.

However, the Cardinals slowly trimmed the CSU lead, taking it under double figures on a three-point play by Chris Bond that made it 28-19 with just over three minutes to go. Forbes answered on the other end with a three-pointer from the top of the key to extend the lead back to 12 points, 31-19, but a 7-2 spurt by the Cardinals brought them back within 33-26 with 1:51 left in the half.

Forbes responded with his third 3-pointer of the half to push the lead back to 10, 38-28, but the Cardinals ended the half with a mini 4-1 run to slice the deficit to 39-32 at the break.

Ball State cut the CSU lead to four points on two occasions early in the second half, but an 8-2 CSU run, capped by a Harris dunk, extended the Viking lead back to 10, 49-39, with 13:19 left. The Cardinals responded with a 6-2 run, but Sebastian Douglas hit a pair of free throws and followed with a layup in transition after a Marlin Mason blocked shot as CSU's lead swelled back to double digits, 55-45, midway through the second half.

The Cardinals would not threaten the rest of the night.

CSU hit 7-of-11 (63.6 percent) from 3-point range, including a 3-of-4 effort from Forbes, and held a 32-25 advantage on the boards.

Wright State 85, Western Carolina 77
Behind five players in double figures, Wright State posted an 85-77 win over Western Carolina at WSU's Nutter Center.

Both teams started slow offensively as the Wright State (5-3) lead was just 9-8 seven minutes in until a 11-0 run, including a pair of three by Reggie Arceneaux, made it 20-8 with 9:31 remaining in the first half. The margin then seesawed between seven and 12 the rest of period before Wright State went into the break ahead, 35-26.

WSU shot 44 percent from the field in the first half, four of eight from three-point range, while Western Carolina shot 33 percent.

WCU cut the deficit to four twice in the early going of the second half, the second being 40-36 on two Tawaski King free throws with 17:07 to play, only to see Wright State go on a 20-9 run over the next eight minutes, half of those coming from AJ Pacher, to make it 60-45.

The Catamounts rallied to within five in the final minute before the Raiders sealed the win with three foul shots, two by Arceneaux.

WSU hit 11-of-20 shots in the second half to end up at 49-percent overall. Western Carolina, meanwhile, shot 42 percent for the contest and was 20-of-28 at the line. Wright State led 26-18 in points in the paint and 20-13 in points off of turnovers.

Five Raiders finished in double figures as Pacher had 18, Arceneaux 12, Kendall Griffin and JT Yoho 11 each and Cole Darling 10.  Grififn and Pacher each had eight rebounds while Arceneaux dished out seven assists.

Trey Sumler and Tom Tankelewicz each had 15 to lead Western Carolina (5-5).

Milwaukee 84, UMKC 79
Jordan Aaron scored 33 points and Milwaukee made one final late surge to claim an 84-79 win over UMKC at the Municipal Auditorium.

Milwaukee (7-2) led by as many as 17 points in the first half before falling down by four with five minutes remaining. But Milwaukee took the lead back for good on a pair of Matt Tiby free throws with 2:45 remaining and then made 8-of-10 free throws down the stretch to hang on for the win.

The Panthers made 65 percent of its shots from the field, the second-best effort in school history. But it was hampered by 19 turnovers and the game never found a rhythm as there were 53 fouls calls.

Kyle Kelm added 13 points and played a season-high 34 minutes in spite of being in foul trouble throughout the night. Tiby added 12 points but played just 16 minutes because of foul trouble.

Martez Harrison had 28 points to lead Kansas City, which shot almost 57 percent from the field.

The win was UWM's fourth on the road this season, its most non-conference road wins since the 2004-05 season. And, Milwaukee's seven wins in November are also a school record and just one off of the full season total from a year ago.

Milwaukee's big advantage started to slip late in the first half, as UMKC scored the final five points of the half to pull within 41-29. UMKC (1-5) continued that surge early in the second half, with a layin by Hall making it 46-40. A dunk by Hall got UMKC within 48-47 and the Kangaroos finally took the lead on a Kirksey layin with 15:06 left.

It was a ballgame from there on out, with Milwaukee pushing back out to a six-point lead at 62-56 before UMKC answered with a 14-4 burst to build a 70-66 lead.

The set up UWM's final run, helping it pull out a third-straight win.

The Panthers rode red-hot shooting to their 12-point halftime lead. UMKC had an early 8-5 advantage but Milwaukee took the lead for good with an 8-0 run and went ahead 23-19 on a Steve McWhorter three with 6:30 remaining.

Aaron then took over from there, knocking in back-to-back threes to push the lead to 32-20 before finding Malcolm Moore inside for an easy layin to push the lead to 36-22. Aaron finally buried another three to make it 41-24, and it took five-straight Kangaroo points - including a half-court shot by Harrison at the buzzer, to bring UMKC to within 41-29 at the break.

Valparaiso 94, Cincinnati Christian 58
Valparaiso bounced back quickly from Friday’s heartbreaking triple-overtime loss, coming out 24 hours later and leading nearly start to finish in Saturday’s 94-58 victory over Cincinnati Christian at the ARC.

It was a total team effort by the Crusaders on Saturday, as of the 10 players that saw the court, all 10 played at least 12 minutes and nine of the 10 scored at least seven points. Leading the way was David Chadwick, who appeared for the first time since Nov. 17 and scored a team-high 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting in 17 minutes off the bench.

Chadwick was one of six Valpo players to close the night in double figures. Alec Peters was perfect on five field goal attempts, scoring 13 points in just 16 minutes. Fellow freshman Lexus Williams finished in double figures for the fourth straight game, scoring 11 points while also pulling down a career-high eight rebounds.

Freshman Clay Yeo hit a trio of 3-pointers en route to 11 points and also handed out five assists without a turnover in 30 minutes of play, while Vashil Fernandez registered his first career double-double with 11 points and a career-best 12 rebounds. Moussa Gueye rounded out the group in double figures, scoring 10 points in 15 minutes of action.

Bobby Capobianco needed just 12 minutes to score eight points and register four assists, while freshman Jubril Adekoya totaled seven points and a career-best eight rebounds. Nick Davidson played 16 minutes and registered seven points and five assists.

The Crusader offense was highly efficient yet again on Saturday, hitting at a 64.6-percent (31-of-48) clip from the floor, including 8-of-16 from beyond the 3-point line. Valpo also got to the foul line 33 times, connecting on 24 free throws (72.7 percent). The Crusaders ended the night with a season-best 25 assists on their 31 made field goals.

Mike Hill led Cincinnati Christian, an NAIA school which was playing the game as an exhibition contest, with 19 points and eight rebounds. Mitch McLeish added 16 points for the Eagles. Valpo limited CCU to just 32.8% shooting and out-rebounded the Eagles, 46-22.

Oakland 86, Rochester College 51
Travis Bader scored a game-high 24 points and led Oakland to its first win of the season, an 86-51 victory over Rochester College on Saturday.

Bader shot 8-of-15 from the field and made four 3-pointers, marking 61 straight games making a 3-point shot. He scored 18 of his points in the second half. Duke Mondy scored 16 and Corey Petros, who finished the first half with 10 points and eight rebounds, scored 14 for Oakland (1-7).

Oakland jumped out to a 24-7 lead 10 minutes into the first half and never trailed. The Golden Grizzlies led by 15 at the break and outscored the Warriors 48-28 in the second half. Stavros Schizas led Rochester College (8-3) with 10 points and seven rebounds.

The Grizzlies began the season with seven road games, and will play seven of their next eight games at home.

Austin Peay 88, Youngstown State 86
Kendrick Perry scored 32 points, but Austin Peay closed on a 12-4 run after Youngstown State built its biggest lead of the second half to sneak out of the Beeghly Center with an 88-86 victory at the Beeghly Center.

Youngstown State (6-3) led 82-76 after two Perry 3-pointers in a span of 21 seconds. YSU could not capitalize on its next three possessions with the six-point advantage and that proved to be costly.

YSU was able to maintain the lead until the final 72 seconds when two free throws by Austin Peay's Travis Betran put the Governors (4-3) on top 86-85. On the ensuing YSU possession, Perry missed his attempt and Zavion Williams answered by draining a 19-footer with 14.6 seconds left to put the APSU on top 88-85.

Perry couldn't make a three to tie the contest quickly, but Bobby Hain grabbed the rebound and the Penguins called timeout with 5.8 seconds left. On the inbounds play, Perry was fouled deep in the backcourt with 3.9 seconds remaining and made the first. He intentionally the missed the second and the rebound went out of bounds to the Penguins with 2.1 ticks left.

Off the inbounds pass, Marcus Keene's 3-point attempt was off the mark and the Penguins came up two points short.

For the contest, Perry was 8-of-17 from the field and 13-of-16 from the free-throw line. Kamren Belin scored 14 points, Keene added 12 and Bobby Hain chipped in 11. Betran had 24 points for Austin Peay while Williams came off the bench to finish with 20.

On the night, YSU shot 45.8 percent, making 27-of-59 shots. Austin Peay shot 58.3 percent, 35-of-60. The Guins made one field goal the final 5:59, a Keene basket with 2:25 left.

The first half featured nine ties and eight lead changes, and the largest lead of the stanza was seven points when the Penguins owned a 15-8 edge with 14:42 left.

A 3-pointer by APSU's Travis Betran tied the game at 19-19 before Belin knocked down a 3-pointer to give YSU a 22-19 lead at the 10:41 mark.

Two free throws by Perry at the 7:27 mark put the Penguins back up 28-25, but the Governors went on an 11-2 run to take a 36-30 advantage at the 5:23 mark.

A jumper by freshman Kyle Steward, a layup by Perry and two free throws by Keene knotted the game at 36-36 with 4:12 left.

Keene's 3-pointer with 56 seconds left put the Penguins up 45-42, but the Governors made two free throws and converted a steal into a layup with one second left to take a 46-45 lead into the locker room.

The Penguins shot 51.7 percent in the first half but the Governors connected on a blistering 64.3 percent from the field.