Men’s Basketball Scoreboard (Feb. 11)
Butler 52, Cleveland State 49
Loyola 78, UIC 69
Youngstown State 71, Valparaiso 53
If anyone says they know what will happen in the final two weeks of the Horizon League men’s basketball regular season, they’re lying. Saturday proved to be another topsy-turvy day, with the teams at the top of the standings both falling.
Butler 52, Cleveland State 49
In a game that had all the desperation of a mid-March contest, Butler made the plays down the stretch to hand Cleveland State a crushing 52-49 loss at the Wolstein Center.
Butler (15-12, 9-6 Horizon) was dogged defensively from the outset, limiting Cleveland State (20-6, 10-4 Horizon) to just 18 first-half points and then weathered a Viking storm in the second half. Butler limited the Vikings to 24% shooting in the first half and 37% shooting for the game. The Bulldogs' inside game out-scored the host squad 26-14 on points-in-the-paint and 14-8 on second-chance points
Chrishawn Hopkins, who scored only four points in the win, came up with the game's biggest basket with a minute-and-a-half remaining. With the scored tied at 49-49, Roosevelt Jones missed a layup and Kameron Woods grabbed the rebound. He passed back to Hopkins, who banked in a short jump shot to give Butler the lead for good.
In the final minute, Hopkins then got a hand on the ball before Trey Harmon could elevate on a potentially tying jumper. The ball deflected to Woods, who split a pair of free throws to provide the final points of the game.
Racing up court, Cleveland State kicked the ball to Anton Grady in the right corner, but his three to send the game to overtime rattled out.
Jones, who had scored 16 points three times in the past seven games, scored 11 points in the first half to help Butler to a 28-18 halftime lead. He added six more in the second half, the last on a free throw that tied the game at 47-47 with just under four minutes remaining. The 6-4 forward also pulled down seven rebounds and had one blocked shot and one steal in the win.
Butler started strongly for the second straight game, building an eight-point lead midway through the first half and then stretching the margin to 10 points by halftime. But the Vikings, coming off a loss to Valparaiso two days earlier, quickly erased that advantage in the second half.
Cleveland State opened the final period with a 16-6 run to tie the score at 34-34 with 12:55 remaining. After that the game was tied four more times and there were six lead changes.
Khyle Marshall, returning to the lineup after missing Butler’s last two games, came off the bench and sparked the Bulldogs with 12 points and eight rebounds in 24 minutes of action. Andrew Smith added 11 points, including the basket that tied the game for the final time at 49-49.
Grady carried the Vikings in the first half, scoring 12 of his game-high 18 in the opening frame to keep the Vikings in the game. The Vikings would get four three-pointers from Trey Harmon in the second half, including two triples that gave CSU brief leads of 37-36 and 45-43. However, Butler countered each time, with a Marshall jumper restoring the Bulldogs’ advantage the first time and Jones’ three-point play lifting them to a 46-45 lead on the second occasion.
Loyola 78, UIC 69
Walt Gibler became the 18th player in Loyola history to reach 1,000 points and 500 rebounds in his career, helping lift the Ramblers to their first win in Horizon League, coming at the expense of city rival UIC, 78-69.
Five players scored in double digits for Loyola (6-18, 1-13 Horizon), who reached 70 points for the first time since Feb. 2011 and snapped a 14-game losing streak in conference play. UIC (7-17, 3-11 Horizon) dropped its 12 road game of the season, splitting its series with the north siders.
Loyola took control of the game from the opening tip and a basket by Gibler and ensuing three-pointer by London Dokubo gave the hosts a lead they would maintain from start to finish. After Daniel Barnes rang up UIC's first field goal of the game at the 17:01 mark of the half, Denzel Brito drained a three-pointer to spark a 15-4 Loyola run that stretched the lead to 20-6 and the Ramblers would not let UIC get closer than nine points the remainder of the period.
UIC opened the second half by scoring seven of the first nine points to get within 41-33, but Chim Kadima reeled off five straight points, including a highlight-reel dunk, to push the lead back to double digits.
The Ramblers led by as many as 17 points in the second half, but UIC mounted late rally that was aided by Loyola's inability to covert free throws down the stretch, to close within 74-67 with 46 seconds remaining. Kadima came up with one of the biggest plays of the game, grabbing an offensive rebound off of Ben Averkamp’s missed free throw with 37 seconds showing on the clock and Loyola hit four of its final six tries from the charity stripe to seal the outcome.
Gibler corralled his milestone rebound, his ninth of the game, with 2:30 left in regulation as he became the first Rambler since Blake Schilb to total 1,000 points and 500 boards for his career.
Averkamp returned to action for the first time since suffering a concussion at Wright State on Jan. 27, coming off the bench to record 17 points and seven rebounds to lead Loyola, which shot 52 percent (27 for 52) from the field. Jordan Hicks continued his resurgence, notching 15 points.
Brito and Gibler added 11 points each, and Brito also doled out six assists off the bench, while Kadima matched a career high with 10 points.
Gary Talton led UIC with 18 points, while his partner in the backcourt, Daniel Barnes finished with 15.
Youngstown State 71, Valparaiso 53
Struggling behind the three-point arc, Youngstown State adjusted, shooting 51 percent inside the arc as it blitzed Valparaiso, 71-53, at the Beeghly Center.
For the third time this season and second time at the Beeghly Center in 22 days, Youngstown State (14-11, 9-6 Horizon) men's basketball team knocked off the Horizon League leader. The victory is the first for the Penguins over the Crusaders since Jan. 15, 2000, and snaps a 14-game losing streak in the series. YSU had not beaten Valpo since it entered the Horizon League.
Valparaiso (18-9, 11-4 Horizon) entered the day with a half-game lead in Horizon League play and closes the evening in the same spot, courtesy of Cleveland State’s loss earlier in the day. The Crusaders will have their final three conference games inside the ARC.
For the game, Kendrick Perry scored 23 points, his fifth straight game with 19 or more points, while DuShawn Brooks added 20. It was the second time this year the Penguins had two players score more than 20 points in the same game (at Penn State). Brooks also finished with nine rebounds.
YSU shot 42.4 percent (14-of-33) in the opening half, taking a 32-20 lead into the locker room. Defensively, the Penguins limited the Crusaders to just six field goals, largely due to a 10-plus minute stretch of the half in which Valparaiso failed to knock down a shot.
Early, Valpo built a 16-12 lead with 11:37 left in the opening half before the Guins responded with a resounding 16-0 run to pull ahead 28-16 at the 2:35 mark. During the 18-point stretch, YSU made nine two-point field goals as Brooks knocked down five, Perry had two, including a steal and break-away slam dunk and Damian Eargle chipped in a bucket.
Brooks finished the first half with 14 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the field while Perry had 11 on 4-of-7 shooting. Edwards scored 12 of the Crusaders' 20 points.
Playing without the injured Kevin Van Wijk, Valpo went to Ryan Broekhoff to open the second half, with the Aussie netting seven points before the Penguins responded by scoring 10 points in a row to go in front 44-27 at the 14:57 mark. The Penguins went ahead 51-32 on two Perry free throws with 11:21 left. Youngstown State's biggest lead of the night was 23 at 71-48 on a layup by Chris Morgan with 1:32 left in the contest.
YSU shot 43.1 percent (25-of-58) from the field and was 16-of-20 from the free-throw line, overcoming a 5-for-19 effort behind the three-point arc. The Guins outrebounded the Crusaders 39-29 while committing just nine turnovers. Valpo shot 31.9 percent (15-of-47) while being held to a season-low 53 points.
Broekhoff collected his League-best 10th double-double of the season, finishing with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Richie Edwards led the Crusaders with 19 points a game after a 20-point effort.
