Men's Basketball Final Shot: Dec. 29

Men’s Basketball Scoreboard (Dec. 29)
Valparaiso 66, Murray State 64
Loyola 69, DePaul 61
Youngstown State 93, Marygrove 52
Milwaukee 95, Ohio Dominican 80
Toledo 74, UIC 55

Horizon League men’s basketball teams produced four wins in the second-to-last day of non-conference play, with Valparaiso and Loyola each collecting notable road victories. Youngstown State and Milwaukee each won against non-Division I foes.

Valparaiso 66, Murray State 64
Overcoming foul trouble down the stretch, Valparaiso rallied in the final six minutes to snatch a 66-64 victory over Murray State at the CFSB Center.

Valparaiso (10-4) trailed throughout much of the game, but two free throws from Ben Boggs and a three from the senior gave the Crusaders a 59-54 lead with 5:17 to play. The three-pointer capped off a 10-0 Crusader run and Valpo never relinquished the advantage.

Twice the Racers cut the lead to three in the waning moments, but Bobby Capobianco hit a transition layup with seventeen seconds left and and Boggs drilled a pair of free throws with five ticks left to help seal the win. The Racers' leading scorer, Isaiah Canaan, hit a triple with less than a second left to make it a two-point Crusaders win.

The Racers began the game on a 13-2 run and hit four three-pointers in the first eight minutes. Broekhoff helped the Crusaders battle back, scoring 10 first-half points, including a stretch of nine straight during a 9-0 run. The uprising gave Valpo a 23-22 lead with 3:38 left in first half. Broekhoff finished the spurt with a dunk after Jordan Coleman kept the possession alive by saving the ball from going out of bounds.

Murray State reclaimed the lead in the second half, but Valpo had another answer. The Crusaders used a 7-0 run to take a 43-42 lead with 12:47 remaining in the second half. Coleman hit a three-pointer and finished the spurt with a reverse layup in transition.

Coleman scored 10 points and grabbed four rebounds while Kevin Van Wijk finished with eight points and nine rebounds. Valpo shot 44 percent in the game and went 5-of-10 from three-point land in the second half.Ryan Broekhoff led the Crusaders with 18 points and eight rebounds, starting 0-for-5 from the field but finishing 6-for-12, including a 3-of-6 mark from three-point range. Broekhoff’s 0.269 efficiency rating bested Murray State’s Canaan, who had a 0.226 mark despite 24 points and six assists.

Valparaiso snapped Murray State's six-game home-winning streak.

The Crusaders led just once, 43-42, in the second half before Boggs’ five-point outburst.

Valparaiso outrebounded Murray State 42-26 and forced 17 turnovers.

Loyola 69, DePaul 61
Cully Payne scored a season-high 24 points and added four rebounds, four assists and a pair of steals, to help Loyola rally from a nine-point deficit and earn a hard-fought 69-61 victory over DePaul at Allstate Arena this afternoon.

Loyola (9-3) snapped its 11-game losing skid versus their city rival and gives them their first victory in the series since 1989.

DePaul reeled off seven unanswered points midway through the opening period to open up a 21-12 lead before Ben Averkamp’s only hoop of the half jump-started a 14-5 Loyola run that brought the Ramblers even at 26. Both teams converted over 50 percent of their shots from the field in the opening 20 minutes and Loyola handled DePaul’s heralded press well and actually forced the Demons into more turnovers, 9-8.

Payne’s first of three three-pointers on the day gave the Ramblers a 38-37 lead, their first of the game, just minutes into the second half. Clinging to a 47-46 lead with 9:30 left to play, Loyola rattled off seven consecutive points, courtesy of baskets by Averkamp and Christian Thomas, which were sandwiched around another three from Payne. After a bucket by DePaul’s Worrel Clahar, Loyola punctuated its game-changing 12-1 run with a hoop from Averkamp and a triple from Jordan Hicks to stretch its advantage to 59-47.

The Blue Demons refused to go away and charged back with six straight points to cut the Ramblers’ lead in half, but Payne answered with a layup and his three-pointer with 1:12 remaining put Loyola back ahead by double digits, 66-55, all but sealing the result.

Payne closed out the game by scoring nine of Loyola’s final 10 points en route to his game-high 24 points, which is one shy of his career high set when he was still playing at the University of Iowa in 2010 against Michigan in the Big Ten Tournament.

Payne received support from Thomas, who recorded his first career double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds, Devon Turk (10 points), Averkamp (9 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks, 2 steals), and Hicks (8 points, 5 rebounds).

Loyola limited DePaul’s leading scorer, Cleveland Melvin who entered the game averaging 17.9 points per gamer, to seven points on 2 of 8 shooting. Brandon Young tallied 18 points to lead the Blue Demons.

Youngstown State 93, Marygrove 52
Kendrick Perry became the 33^rd player in Youngstown State history to score 1,000 career points, and the Penguins ended the 2012 calendar year with a 93-52 victory over Marygrove at the Beeghly Center.

Perry's 1,000th point came on a fast-break lay-up at the 15:38 mark of the second half on a pass from Blake Allen. Perry, a native of Ocoee, Fla., exited the game two seconds later as coach Jerry Slocum called time out to allow his junior guard to celebrate the moment. The junior is the 142^nd player in Horizon League history to achieve the feat.

Perry became the first Penguin to reach 1,000 career points since Vytas Sulskis reached the milestone as a senior at home on Nov. 27, 2010. Quin Humphrey was the last YSU junior to score his 1,000^th point in the 2005-06 season.

Perry and Allen both scored 17 points, and both enjoyed scoring spurts before resting for most of the second half.

With Marygrove holding a 4-3 lead, its only advantage of the contest, Perry scored five straight points as part of a 7-0 run that put the Penguins up 10-4. Perry scored eight of YSU's first 11 and 13 of its first 20 points, and Allen scored 12 points in the final nine minutes of the first half.

After Perry assisted on an Allen bucket with 16:10 left that gave YSU a 10-4 lead, Marygrove scored four straight points to get within two. The Mustangs trailed just 13-10, but the Penguins held them to five points in a 13-minute span to take control of the contest. YSU ended the first half on a 30-7 run and led 43-17 at halftime.

The Penguins outscored the Mustangs 50-24 in the paint and 23-0 in fast-break points. YSU also out-rebounded Marygrove 51-25 and was plus-11 in turnover margin. The Penguins had 24 offensive rebounds, one fewer than the Mustangs' total rebounding total.

YSU shot 45.1 percent in the contest and made seven of its nine 3-pointers in the first half. Allen had five triples in 24 minutes, and Perry had three in 20 minutes. Allen added a game-high eight assists, and Perry posted a complete game with six rebounds, six assists and four steals to go along with his 17 points.

Damian Eargle added 11 points in 20 minutes, and Bobby Hain had 13 off the bench for the Penguins. Zamarre Neely led Marygrove with 13 points.

Perry scored 521 points last season as the Horizon League's top scorer, and he had 269 as a freshman. Today's 17-point outing gives him 210 in the first 13 games of 2012-13.

Milwaukee 95, Ohio Dominican 80
Apparently, arriving late was the key for Milwaukee. Both Jordan Aaron and Demetrius Harris were late arriving back due to snow in the Midwest, but combined for 48 points in the Panthers’ 95-80 win over Ohio Dominican at the Klotsche Center.

Aaron had a career-best 34 points for Milwaukee (4-10), which shot 56 percent from the floor in the second half and used an 18-6 burst to open the second half in putting the game away.

Aaron's 34 points came off the bench, as the usual starter played as a reserve after being stuck in New York most of the week because of bad weather. The junior did not practice before scoring the most points by a Panther since 2006.

Harris experienced similar weather problems in attempting to return from Arkansas but came off the bench to score 14 points and add five rebounds and four blocks.

Paris Gulley added 20 points as UWM posted its highest point total since 2009 and its most second-half points since 2003.

UWM actually trailed by as many as four points in the early going but recovered to take a 36-32 lead at the half. The Panthers then turned up their full-court pressure to break the game open, going ahead 54-38 on a three by Aaron with 16 minutes remaining.

Ohio Dominican pulled to within nine points midway through the second half before the Panthers used another burst to open a 20-point lead. UWM then made liberal use of its bench, with 12 players seeing action.

Milwaukee sported a brand new starting lineup, given the travel delays of Aaron and Harris combined with the concussion suffered by Kyle Kelm at Wisconsin. Freshman J.J. Panoske and junior Mitch Roelke each made their first career starts, while senior Ryan Haggerty made his first start of the season. Gulley and James Haarsma were the other Milwaukee starters.

Toledo 74, UIC 55
Host Toledo jumped out to a 15-3 run to start the game, and held off a second half surge by the Flames, leading to a convincing 74-55 win over UIC at Savage Arena.

UIC (9-4) dropped its third straight game, all of which came away from the UIC Pavilion.

The Rockets were led by Mid-American Conference leading scorer Rian Pearson, who poured in 24 points on 8-of-17 shooting, and pulled down 10 rebounds. Reese Holliday added 16 off the bench. UIC was led by Daniel Barnes, who scored 18 points on a career-high tying six three-point field goals.

Barnes moved into 10^th place on UIC's all-time three-point field goals list, finishing the game with 107 in his career.

Toledo trailed just once in the game, after Barnes led off the contest with a three-pointer from the top of the key. From there, however, the Rockets went 6-for-8 from the field, forcing the Flames into their first timeout, trailing 15-3 just 4:36 into the game. UT's lead reached 17, 37-20, with 2:51 remaining in the first half, before the Flames finished the stanza on a 10-4 run.

Will Simonton, who chipped in a career-high eight points, converted his second field goal with 24 seconds remaining in the half to pull UIC within nine, 39-30.

The Flames pulled within 47-40 at the 15:05 mark of the second half, but UT answered with a 9-2 run, and claimed a 56-42 lead with 11:12 remaining. UIC could draw no closer down the stretch.

The Flames had 16 assists on their 21 field goals, and turned the ball just 10 times. But Toledo committed just seven turnovers, shot 43.8 percent from the field in the first half and held a 48-38 advantage on the boards. UIC limited the Rockets to just a 36.7 percent shooting effort in the final 20:00.