Men's Basketball Final Shot: Dec. 30

Men’s Basketball Scoreboard (Dec. 30)
Detroit 83, Canisius 78
Green Bay 84, Illinois-Springfield 43
Wright State 58, Mount Saint Joseph 49

Horizon League men’s basketball teams enjoyed a perfect end to 2012, as Detroit, Green Bay and Wright State all collected wins. Over the weekend, the conference went 8-1.

Detroit 83, Canisius 78
Detroit survived a game of runs against visiting Canisius, holding off the Golden Griffins, 83-78, in the Chevrolet Gotham Classic.

Detroit (9-5) squandered an early 12-point lead and trailed by as much as seven in the second half before a 12-0 run gave the Titans the lead for good.

Down 55-48 with 11:40 to play, Doug Anderson got the run started with a transition layup. Though he missed the subsequent free throw, Detroit would revisit the free-throw line a minute later, as Jason Calliste converted a pair to slice the deficit to a single point.

After a Canisius turnover, Nick Minnerath would hit a three off a high pick-and-roll with Ray McCallum to put Detroit ahead, 57-55, with 9:00 remaining.

The Titans would come up with a steal on the defensive end, leading to a Juwan Howard, Jr., three in the corner, extending the lead to five.

Detroit would lead by as much as eight down the stretch, but Canisius would mount a furious rally down the stretch, nearly overcoming the Titans shooting 9-of-10 at the free-throw line. The Golden Griffins would hit three three-pointers down the stretch to close with 81-78, but McCallum hit two freebies with 14 seconds left, and Jason Calliste rebounded Billy Baron’s missed three-point attempt to clinch the result.

McCallum led all scorers with 22 points, handing out seven assists. The junior was joined in double figures by Calliste, who posted an efficient 19 points on 6-of-8 shooting. Minnerath finished with 16, while Howard, Jr., and Doug Anderson rounded out the Titans’ quintet in double figures with 13 apiece.

The Titans’ starters accounted for all 83 of the team’s points.

Baron led Canisius with 20, while Isaac Sosa and Jordan Heath each recorded 17. Harold Washington chipped in 13 for the Golden Griffins.

Green Bay 84, Illinois-Springfield 43
Sultan Muhammad made his first five three-point attempts and scored a career-high 21 points, sparking Green Bay to an 84-43 victory over Illinois-Springfield in the final tune-up for the Phoenix before Horizon League play begins on Thursday.

In its current three-game winning streak, Green Bay (6-7) has held its opponents to just 48.3 points per game and a 32.8 percent shooting percentage during its current three-straight winning streak.

Muhammad, who tallied 17 points in the opening half, scored his first five points during a 20-0 run to turn an 8-5 lead into a 28-5 advantage with 8:40 to play in the first half. Muhammad added four more three-pointers in the period as the Phoenix lead grew to 51-17 at the break.

The junior college transfer from South Suburban College finished his best game in a Phoenix uniform with 21 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field and 5-of-6 from long range. His performance helped Green Bay shoot a season-high 59.3 percent (32-of-54) from the field and 57.1 percent from long range (8-of-14).

Green Bay went 18-of-26 from the field in the opening half and had assists on 16 of its 18 made field goals. Keifer Sykes, celebrating his 19^th birthday, had nine points and six assists in the first half. Sykes finished 5-of-6 from the field and 4-of-4 from the line for 15 points, six assists, five rebounds and two steals in 28 minutes.

UIS missed 12 consecutive shots during Green Bay’s 20-0 run and shot only 6-of-30 from the field in the first half. The Prairie Stars shot 15-of-58 for the game (25.9 percent), a low for a Phoenix opponent in the history of the Resch Center and a low for any opponent since Idaho shot 22.6 percent on Nov. 17, 2000.

Green Bay cooled slightly after halftime but extended its lead to 44 points on two occasions, including on Muhammad’s last bucket in the lane to become the third Phoenix player to tally 20 or more points in a game this season.

Alec Brown was efficient for the second game in a row, making 7-of-10 shots en route to 17 points while adding eight rebounds and four assists. Kam Cerroni and Greg Mays added eight points each while a quartet of Phoenix players scored four apiece as every player in uniform scored.

Daniel Turner returned to the floor after missing the previous seven games with an injury and tallied four points.

In addition to Sykes, Carrington Love dished out a career-high six assists as the Phoenix finished with a season-high 24 helpers. Fellow freshman Jordan Fouse notched a career-high 11 rebounds as Green Bay held a 38-30 edge on the glass.

Wright State 58, Mount St. Joseph 49
Trailing by one at the half, Wright State took control over the final 20 minutes behind Jerran Young’s career-high 24 points to defeat Mount St. Joseph 58-49 at WSU's Nutter Center.

Wright State (9-4) fell behind, 18-7, due to a 15-0 run by visiting Mount St. Joseph; however, the Raiders countered with a 10-0 burst of their own, half of those coming from Young. The margin then seesawed between one and three before two Tavares Sledge free throws cut the WSU deficit to 22-21 at the half.

The Lions shot 44 percent from the field in the opening 20 minutes, including four of seven from three-point range, compared to 35 percent for Wright State, who did not make a three attempt in seven tries.

Mount St. Joseph led 30-29 on a David Mann layup with 14:35 to play before the Raiders took control with a 19-5 run over the next seven minutes - a run that featured eight more points from Young and five by Reggie Arceneaux.

The Lions closed to within seven on two occasions over the final 5:34 of the contest, but could get no closer as six more Young points helped seal the Raider victory.

Wright State made 17-of-32 shots in the second half to finish at 46 percent overall while Mount St. Joseph hit for 61 percent the final 20 minutes to end up at 53 percent for the game, including 8-of-14 three-pointers. The Raiders led 40-16 in points in the paint, 16-3 in second-chance points, 28-20 in points off of turnovers and 16-0 in fast-break points as they forced the Lions into 29 turnovers while committing 15.

Young led all scorers with 24 for WSU, 16 in the second half, and also had six steals while Miles Dixon had 10. Sledge added eight points and seven boards.

Mann paced Mount St. Joseph with 16 points while Joel Schudder had 14.