League Teams Open Season 6-0 on Friday

Men’s Basketball Scoreboard (Nov. 9):
Detroit 88, Northern Michigan 53
Cleveland State 92, Grambling 49
Milwaukee 76, University of Mary 46
Loyola 62, Toledo 50
#rv/- Valparaiso 85, Georgia Southern 54
Wright State 80, Idaho 70

Horizon League men’s basketball teams opened the year with six wins in six attempts, as Detroit, Cleveland State, Milwaukee, Loyola and Valparaiso all won games on their home courts. Wright State traveled to Idaho to take a season-opening victory over host Idaho.

Detroit 88, Northern Michigan 53
Detroit men's basketball team opened its regular season with an 88-53 drubbing of Northern Michigan Friday night at Calihan Hall. Four Titans scored in double figures led by Doug Anderson and Ray McCallum, who combined for 47 points.

Anderson led all scorers with 25 points and nine rebounds, while McCallum netted 22 points on 9-for-13 shooting, with six assists, five rebounds, two steals, and two blocks. Juwan Howard, Jr. added 12 points and five rebounds, while P.J. Boutte scored a career-high 10 points with two steals.

Detroit (1-0) opened the game with a 24-3 run in the first eight minutes of action and never looked back as the Titans took a 44-23 lead into the locker room. The Wildcats did piece together a 10-1 run to trim the Titan's lead to 25-13 with seven minutes remaining, but Detroit responded by closing the half with a 19-10 run including a three-pointer from half court by Anderson as the buzzer sounded. Anderson led all scorers with 12 points in the first half, while Howard had nine and McCallum seven. The Titans forced 16 turnovers in the half, which resulted in 21 points for Detroit.

The Titans opened the second half with a 14-8 run in the first five minutes to build a 61-31 lead. The lead would then hover around 30 points for the remainder of the half as Boutte finished the game by knocking down back-to-back three-pointers to record a new career-high.

Detroit outrebounded NMU, 40-36, and forced 25 Wildcat turnovers, which resulted in 30 points for the Titans. The Titans also recorded 19 assists, 16 steals, and seven blocked shots. Detroit shot 48.6 percent from the field, including 11-for-31 from behind the arc, while holding NMU to just 33.3 percent for the field.

Cleveland State 92, Grambling 47
Charlie Lee led six Cleveland State players in double figures with a career-high 20 points as the Vikings rolled to a 92-49 victory over Grambling in the season opener on Friday night in the Wolstein Center.

Lee, who also added seven assists, made 7-of-10 shots from the floor, including 2-of-3 from three-point.

The win was the 500th in Cleveland State’s (1-0) program history at home, moving the Vikings to 500-391 in home games since the program began in 1929-30 as Fenn College.

Anton Grady scored 14 points with nine rebounds, while Tim Kzmczyc had 12 points and six boards. Marlin Mason and Sebastian Douglas added 10 points apiece, while Bryn Forbes chipped in 14 points off the bench.

Devon Long added eight points.

The Vikings wasted little time in jumping on Grambling right from the start, scoring the first seven points of the game. After two free throws by Kamczyc to open the scoring, Lee hit a three-pointer and a jumper to make it 7-0 less than three minutes in.

The lead quickly swelled to double figures, 16-5, on a Douglas layup and was pushed to 20 points (29-9) when Mason finished a layup at the 7:36 mark.

It was 43-17 at the half as the Vikings held the Tigers to 4-of-23 (.174) shooting in the first 20 minutes, while dominating the glass (24-9).

A 15-5 run to start the second half pushed CSU's lead to 58-22 with 15:15 to play as the Vikings used 58-percent shooting for the game to earn the win.

The Vikings hit 8-of-16 (.500) from three-point and also held a decisive 39-24 advantage on the boards.

CSU dished out 23 assists on its 34 baskets. In 70 possessions, the Vikings averaged 1.31 points per possession, the fourth-best mark nationally on the night.

Milwaukee 76, University of Mary 46
Kyle Kelm scored 15 points and Milwaukee held the University of Mary to just 32.7 percent shooting from the field en route to a 76-46 win Friday night at the Klotsche Center.

Jordan Aaron added 12 points and seven assists while Thieno Niang had 11 for Milwaukee (1-0), which was playing its regular season opener.

The Panthers made 13 three-pointers and committed just eight turnovers in a solid effort.

Milwaukee trailed for the first 10 minutes of the game before taking complete control. UWM took the lead for good at 13-12 on a jumper by James Haarsma and eventually led 26-16 on another jumper by Haarsma.

The Panthers' advantage grew to 32-18 on a three-pointer by Kelm with 1:21 left and UWM led 34-19 at the break.

Milwaukee didn't let up in the second half. The lead hit 22 points on a three-pointer by Aaron with 12:24 remaining, pushing UWM ahead 46-24. The Panthers eventually led by as many as 31 points in cruising to the victory.

Loyola 62, Toledo 50
Ben Averkamp scored a team-high 15 points and in the process became the 39^th player in Loyola history to score 1,000 for his career, as Loyola used a team effort to record a 62-50 victory over Toledo at Gentile Arena.

The 50 points allowed by the Ramblers is the fewest surrendered in a season opener since they held Assumption to 44 in 1961.

After Toledo jumped out to a quick 7-3 lead, Averkamp and Matt O’Leary combined to score the next nine points as Loyola (1-0) seized a 12-7 advantage it would never relinquish. The Ramblers would build their edge to as many as 12 points, at 36-24, on Averkamp’s basket with just over a minute to go in the period.

Loyola put the game out of reach with a 16-2 run over a nearly nine-minute stretch in the second half, punctuated by an explosive dunk by Jordan Hicks that brought the Gentile Arena crowd to its feet.

Averkamp’s milestone moment came when he sank a pair of free throws at the 19:18 mark of the second half and with his nine rebounds tonight, the senior forward now needs only 18 boards to become the 19^th player in school history to rack up 1,000 points and 500 rebounds in his career.

Joe Crisman pitched in 10 points, and four boards, while Hicks added nine points and six rebounds for Loyola. Three other players making their Rambler debut enjoyed solid evenings as Cully Payne (seven points, three assists), O’Leary (eight points, seven rebounds), Jeff White (seven points, rebounds) and Devon Turk (six points, four rebounds) all contributed to the win.

#rv/- Valpraiso 85, Georgia Southern 54
Valparaiso led 17-2 six minutes into Friday night's season opener at the ARC against Georgia Southern, and left no doubt from there, cruising to an 85-54 victory over the Eagles.

The Crusaders got the game off on the right foot, as senior Kevin Van Wijk scored on each of Valpo's first two possessions.  Following a basket by the Eagles, senior Ryan Broekhoff knocked down a triple, and three possessions later, Broekhoff canned another 3-pointer to make it 10-2 Crusaders just four minutes into the game.

Even following the first media timeout, Valparaiso (1-0) kept rolling along.

Broekhoff got to the free throw line and converted a pair of freebies, and fifth-year senior Erik Buggs followed with a steal and fast-break layup.  Broekhoff capped the game-opening run with a driving basket while getting fouled, converting the old-fashioned 3-point play to give him 11 quick points and stake Valpo to a 17-2 lead just over six minutes into the contest.

Georgia Southern would cut the lead to single digits on a couple of occasions, but Valpo never let the Eagles get any closer than six points the rest of the way.  Leading by eight at 24-16 with 7:16 to go in the first half, the Crusaders would end the half on a 16-5 run, including 3-pointers from seniors Matt Kenney, Ben Boggs and Will Bogan, capped by a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by junior Jordan Coleman to go into the locker room leading 40-21.

The result was academic from there, as the Eagles got no closer than 16 points in the second half.  The last large surge for the Crusaders came midway through the period, as they scored 17 points in a stretch of 2:31, which included five points from Van Wijk, another Bogan triple and three 3-pointers for his first three Crusader baskets by redshirt sophomore Alex Rossi, to push the advantage to 78-37.

Van Wijk was as efficient as always to pace the Crusaders in scoring Friday night, going 5-of-8 from the field and 6-of-7 from the line for 16 points in just 20 minutes of play.  Coleman scored 15 points off the bench in his Valpo debut, including a perfect 4-for-4 effort from behind the 3-point line.  Broekhoff needed just five official field goal attempts, going 4-for-5, to end the night with 14 points in just 23 minutes.

Boggs led Valpo on the glass with seven rebounds, just one shy of a career best, as the Crusaders out-rebounded the Eagles by a 31-23 margin.  Meanwhile, Buggs set a new career high by dishing out nine assists as Valpo totaled 19 helpers on 27 baskets.

As a team, the Crusaders shot 52.9% (27-of-51) from the floor and were even more accurate from behind the 3-point line, going 13-of-24 (54.2%).  Valpo also enjoyed its trips to the free throw line to the tune of 85.7% (18-of-21).  The Crusaders scored 36 points off of 21 GSU turnovers, 14 of which were Valpo steals, and also out-scored the Eagles in bench points, 36-3.

Wright State 80, Idaho 70
With no seniors and the 14^th-youngest roster in the country, road wins were not supposed to come easy for Wright State. The Raiders never trailed in the second half en route to an 80-70 victory over Idaho at the Cowan Spectrum.

Wright State (1-0) vowed to play at a quicker pace in head coach Billy Donlon’s third season, scoring 80 points on 67 possessions. Where the Raiders excelled, however, was in forcing turnovers on 20 percent of Idaho’s possessions.

Cole Darling led the Raiders with 18 points, while JT Yoho added 17 off the bench in his collegiate debut.

After the teams traded buckets to open the game, Wright State never looked back after Matt Vest’s layup gave the team a 12-10 lead; taking a 40-29 advantage into the half, the Raiders would lead by as much as 16 in the second half after a Kendall Griffin layup put WSU ahead, 75-59.

A.J. Pacher and Reggie Arceneaux each added 10 points for Wright State, which went 27-for-59 from the field.