Home Teams Cruise Into Second Round

Horizon League Men’s Basketball Tournament Bracket

First Round Tournament Scoreboard:
Game 1: (3) Detroit 80, (10) Loyola 71
Game 2: (6) Youngstown State 77, (7) Green Bay 60
Game 3: (4) Milwaukee 68, (9) UIC 55
Game 4: (5) Butler 70, (8) Wright State 52

Seeds held on the opening night of the Horizon League Men’s Basketball Championship, with the home teams claiming wins on Tuesday night, setting up rematches that each featured nail-biting finishes in the regular season. Detroit will meet Youngstown State, while Butler will take on Milwaukee.

Game 1: (3) Detroit 80, (10) Loyola 71
Led by Eli Holman’s 20 points, five Titans scored in double figures as the Detroit men's basketball team advanced to the second round of the Horizon League Championship with an 80-71 victory over Loyola on Tuesday night at Calihan Hall. Detroit will face Youngstown State in the quarterfinals Friday.

In a balanced attack, Detroit (19-13) got double digit outputs from five different players and made a concerted effort to get to the free throw line, knocking down 30-of-36 from the charity stripe. Detroit also turned Loyola over 23 times to help keep a feisty Rambler squad at bay.

Chase Simon had 19 and Doug Anderson had 18, while Jason Calliste and Ray McCallum each added 10 in the win. But, it was Holman's inside presence that proved to be the difference. The newly-minted HL Sixth Man of the Year made all six of his shots from the floor and went 8-12 from the line in his 27 minutes off-the-bench.

Loyola (7-23) hung tough, thanks in part to yeoman's effort from senior Ben Averkamp who scored 20 points and had eight rebounds. Daniel Brito had 12 points with five assists and three steals while running the Rambler attack.

LU didn't have the look of a 10th-seeded team, doing its part to dictate tempo in the first half.  In fact, Loyola led 16-14 midway through the first frame until Detroit embarked on a 12-0 run that helped give the Titans some distance. UDM took a 34-23 lead into the break, but made just 33 percent of its shots in the opening 20 minutes.

In the second half, Loyola cut it to five on four different occasions, but each time Detroit had the answer to avoid any upset notions. After Jordan Hicks hit a jumper to close it to 46-41 but Anderson countered with a jumper of his own and Holman added another as the precursor to a 10-2 spurt that put the margin back to 15.

Loyola's resolve whittled the lead back down to five for the final time with five minutes remaining and a pair of McCallum free throws and an Anderson dunk reignited the Calihan crowd and ushered the home team into the win column.

Game 2: (6) Youngstown State 77, (7) Green Bay 60
The Youngstown State men's basketball team went up by 15 in nine minutes into the game and kept Green Bay at arm's length the rest of the way to win 77-60 in the opening round of the Horizon League Tournament on Tuesday at Beeghly Center.

Youngstown State (16-14) advances to play Detroit on Friday at 6 p.m. ET at Valparaiso. Green Bay finishes the season with a 15-15 record.

Kendrick Perry scored 12 of YSU's first 14 points as all five Penguins starters reached double figures in scoring. Damian Eargle led the way with 17 points and nine rebounds, five of which were on the offensive end, while DuShawn Brooks scored 16. Perry finished with 15, Ashen Ward scored 14 and Blake Allen posted 11 points.

Green Bay’s Alec Brown, who joined Perry on the All-League First Team was the only Phoenix player in double figures. He finished with 20 points and nine rebounds. Keifer Sykes, who had helped spark Green Bay’s run of eight wins in its last 10 games, was held to nine points on 3-of-11 shooting.

Youngstown State led by double digits for more than 33 minutes.

YSU blistered the nets in the early going, making 14 of its first 20 attempts from the field to lead by as many as 18 in the first half.

Perry's lay-up in traffic gave the Penguins a 14-4 lead with 15:10 remaining, and Brooks later scored 12 points in just over six minutes. His fourth 3-pointer of the period gave YSU a 38-22 lead with 7:14 left.

YSU went on to miss its next nine field-goal attempts, and Green Bay cut the margin to nine twice before the end of the half. After an Eargle free throw made the score 41-25, Green Bay scored seven straight points to make the score 41-32 on a three-point play by Brown. Eargle ended a near seven-minute scoring drought by rebounding and dunking his own miss with 28 seconds left, and YSU led by double digits the rest of the way.

Despite not hitting a field goal for nearly seven minutes, the Penguins still shot 50 percent in the opening half and went 8-for-12 from 3-point range en route to taking a 45-34 lead. Green Bay shot 46.9 percent (15-for-32) in the first half, and Brown scored 11 points as the only Phoenix player to score more than six.

Green Bay trimmed the deficit to 12 four times in the second half and trailed just 66-54 with 8:38 remaining. YSU then held the Phoenix scoreless for almost five minutes and went on a 7-0 run to take its largest lead at 73-54 with 4:04 remaining on a Brooks bucket. The teams traded buckets over the next four minutes for the final tally.

YSU shot 47.5 percent and was 10-for23 from 3-point range. Green Bay shot 45.3 percent but made just four 3-pointers and committed 17 turnovers. The Penguins finished with 13 steals, 17 assists and just seven turnovers.

Game 3: (4) Milwaukee 68, (9) UIC 55
James Haarsma scored 18 points and Milwaukee jumped to a 34-6 lead in cruising to a 68-55 win over UIC in the first round of the Horizon League Men's Basketball Tournament Tuesday night at the Klotsche Center.

Milwaukee (20-12) hit on seven of their first nine attempts from three-point range in running away with the game in the first half. UIC finished its season at 8-22.

The win also pushed UWM to the 20-win plateau for the third time under head coach Rob Jeter and for just the 11th time in 115 years of basketball at the school.

Ryan Allen added 17 points, six rebounds and five steals for Milwaukee in his best all-around effort in recent weeks.

UWM also got a number of other contributions, including seven points and 11 rebounds from Tony Meier along with seven points, six assists and five rebounds from Kaylon Williams.

Hayden Humes scored 14 points to lead UIC, which was plagued by 32.7-percent shooting from the field for the game.

Milwaukee started fast and didn't let up in the first 15 minutes. A pair of three-point plays by Allen made it 10-2 in the first five-and-a-half minutes and a three-pointer by Kyle Kelm extended the edge to 16-4 with 12:45 remaining. Paris Gulley added a three on Milwaukee's next possession and the lead was 19-4.

After UIC scored a basket, UWM tallied the next 15. Gulley and Haarsma made back-to-back threes to push the edge to 29-6 and then Allen electrified the crowd with an open-court dunk to make it 31-6. Haarsma capped the run with a three, pushing the lead to 34-6 with 5:30 remaining.

UIC slowed the Panthers from there, holding Milwaukee to a single point the rest of the half. But, the Flames could score only eight themselves and UWM led 35-14 at the half.

The Flames actually pulled to within 35-21 early in the second half before Milwaukee responded, scoring five in a row to push the lead back to 40-21. The advantage eventually hit 20 again on a three by Williams and then a three from Ryan Haggerty made it 52-31 with 13:20 left.

UIC never got closer than 16 points until the final minute.

UWM and Butler split two games during the regular season, with each team winning on its homecourt. The two sides also met in last year's league title game and will be squaring off in the league tournament for the third-straight season.

Game 4: (5) Butler 70, (8) Wright State 52
A career-high 25 points from Andrew Smith helped Butler knock off Wright State 70-52 in Tuesday night's opening round game of the Horizon League tournament at Hinkle Fieldhouse.

The No. 5 seed Bulldogs (19-13) advance to play No. 4 seed Milwaukee in the second round on Friday at 8:30 p.m. EST.

Butler went into halftime with a narrow 30-29 lead, but opened the second half on a 13-0 run to pull away from the Raiders (13-19).

Smith scored 17 of his game-high 25 points in the second half and pulled down seven rebounds in the win. The effort was Smith's third time this season scoring 20 or more points.

Kameron Woods paced Butler with a game-high nine rebounds and also recorded a career-high four blocks.

Ronald Nored dished out a game-high six assists, surpassing Tim Bowen (1989-93) for second place on Butler's all-time assist chart with 474. The Homewood, Ala., native has recorded 170 assists this season, just two shy of Butler's single season record set by Mike Green during the 2007-08 season.

The Bulldogs shot 53.7% from the field, their second best shooting performance of the season. Butler shot 56.5% in a Jan. 6 win at Wright State.

Cole Darling led Wright State (13-19) with 12 points, while Julius Mays, the League Newcomer of the Year, added 11.

However, the effort could not overcome the opening stretch of the second half, as Butler hit the ground running via an alley-oop from Nored to Roosevelt Jones and never looked back in claiming the win.

Smith scored 13 straight points for Butler in one stretch, helping the Bulldogs turn a 56-44 lead into a 67-47 bulge by the time he checked out the 4:26 to play. The junior closed his evening by turning in a three-pointer and two three-point plays on three straight possessions to create the 20-point margin.

Jones finished with 11 and Chrishawn Hopkins 10 for the Bulldogs.