A day after the road teams swept two Horizon League games, Friday night was the chance for the home teams to hold serve. At the ARC, Valparaiso downed Youngstown State, while in a nationally-televised game on ESPNU, Butler blew past Cleveland State.
In a much-ballyhooed matchup featuring the three-time defending regular season champion Bulldogs and 2009 League titleist Cleveland State (15-2, 4-1 Horizon), Butler (11-5, 3-1 Horizon) got out to a hot start and ran away from the Vikings, 79-56. Andrew Smith and Matt Howard controlled the game, with Smith tallying his first career double-double with 22 points and 10 rebounds. The totals were both career-bests for the sophomore.
Howard added 17 points, while Ronald Nored carved his way to 13 points. Khyle Marshall sparked a game-changing run midway through the first half, scoring six of his 11 points in the stretch.
Norris Cole had nearly half of Cleveland State's 56 points, coming up with 26; Cole also recorded his first double-double of the year, grabbing 10 rebounds.
The win was the 100th of head coach Brad Stevens' career, making him the sixth-quickest coach to reach the mark.
Cleveland State heads to Valparaiso on Sunday at 2:35 p.m. ET, while Butler welcomes Youngstown State at 2 p.m. ET the same day.
Valpo (11-5, 3-1 Horizon) will host the Vikings after a second-half surge blew open up a five-point halftime lead and pushed the Crusaders past Youngstown State (6-8, 1-4 Horizon) at the ARC. Cory Johnson carried Valparaiso, going 10-of-16 from the floor, including a pair of rim-rattling dunks, to finish with 26 points.
The Crusaders erased almost all doubt about the game’s eventual outcome out of the halftime break, starting the second stanza on a 20-4 run over the first seven minutes. Brandon Wood scored the first two baskets of the half within the first 65 seconds, and also had a baseline one-handed slam off a feed from Johnson a couple minutes later, eventually tallying 17 points in the game.
