Men’s Basketball Scoreboard (Feb. 12)
Detroit 92, Cleveland State 62
Valparaiso 68, Wright State 61
Milwaukee 71, Loyola 53
The hype can begin. After suffering a defeat in the Horizon League Championship last year on its home court, Valparaiso has a chance close in on putting the conference tournament in the ARC once more. Of course, with wins tonight, the stage is set for Detroit to visit Valparaiso on Saturday with a share of the conference title on the line.
Detroit 92, Cleveland State 62
Two Detroit players recorded double-doubles, while Jason Calliste became the 38th player in Titan history with 1,000 career points as Detroit bounced back from a loss with an impressive 92-62 win over Cleveland State at Calihan Hall.
Detroit (17-9, 9-4 Horizon) claimed its 12th win on Dick Vitale at Calihan Hall, matching the number for the most home wins during the regular season since 2001-02. The win also placed the Titans solely in second place in the Horizon League.
Senior Nick Minnerath led Detroit with 34 points and 12 rebounds in posting his second double-double of the season, while Ray McCallum scored 16 points with 13 boards, eight assists and four steals. Fellow junior Jason Calliste scored 19 points with five assists, becoming the 38th Titan to join the 1,000-point club with 1,001, while Doug Anderson added nine points.
Detroit led at the half, 42-24, before being outscoring the Vikings, 50-38, in the second stanza. Cleveland State (12-14, 4-8 Horizon) trimmed the Titans lead to 46-33 with 16:48 left, before Detroit closed the game by outscoring the Vikings by 17 points.
Detroit opened the game with 15-5 run, including a pair of highflying Anderson dunks, before taking a 28-11 lead with just eight minutes left in the half. The Vikings trimmed the lead to 28-16 with a 5-0 run, but Detroit answered back with an 8-0 spurt to build a 36-16 lead with four minutes left. Both teams then exchanged baskets and Detroit took a 42-24 lead into the locker room. Minnerath led all scorers with 14 points in the first half, while Calliste had 11 and Anderson had nine.
The Titans ended the game shooting 44.4 percent (32-of-72) from the field, including 84.6 percent (22-of-26) from the charity stripe, while Cleveland State shot 46.0 percent (23-of-50) overall. Detroit won the battle of the boards, 46-25, while forcing 16 turnovers and dishing out 17 assists.
Bryn Forbes finished with 14 points to lead Cleveland State, while Marlin Mason added 11 points and eight rebounds.
Valparaiso 68, Wright State 61
Matt Kenney and Kevin Van Wijk carried Valparaiso in the second half, scoring 25-of-34 points and Valparaiso held off a game Wright State squad, 68-61, at a raucous Nutter Center.
Valparaiso (20-6, 10-2 Horizon) never trailed in the game, and in the process, remained 1.5 games ahead of Detroit in the League standings heading into Saturday’s matchup. The win also was the 20th of the season for Valpo, which has won at least 20 games in 13 of the last 20 seasons, including each of the last three years.
Wright State (17-9, 8-5 Horizon) dropped to third in the Horizon League, one game behind second-place Detroit and a half-game ahead of Green Bay.
Just like Saturday’s game at Cleveland State, Valpo led start-to-finish on Tuesday against the Raiders, but in a much tighter game. The Crusaders held just a three-point advantage as the game ticked under the four-minute mark, but got a pair of defensive stops as Wright State attempted to cut the lead further, as Ryan Broekhoff blocked a shot and then grabbed a defensive board on the next possession.
Following Broekhoff’s defensive stand, the Crusaders ran clock before Kenney fed Van Wijk in the post for a layup with 2:30 to play to make it 62-57. WSU responded with a second-chance basket on its next possession, closing to within 62-59 with 1:56 remaining, but Valpo again got the ball to Van Wijk underneath. The senior was fouled with 1:29 to play and hit both attempts to increase the lead to 64-59.
Broekhoff then came up with another big defensive play, blocking AJ Pacher’s layup attempt with 1:19 to go to give the Crusaders possession with the five-point advantage. Following a timeout, Valpo ran the game clock down before Kenney brought the ball from left to right as the shot clock wound down. From the top of the key, Kenney hit the game-clinching jumper, pushing Valpo’s edge to 66-59 with 44.7 seconds to play.
Pacher converted an inside basket for the Raiders with 32 seconds left to move WSU back within five points, and the Raiders regained possession following a Valpo turnover seven ticks later. But the Raiders missed their next effort, and Kenney grabbed the board and hit two free throws with 14 seconds to play for the final margin as Valpo improved to 5-1 on the road within Horizon League play this year.
The Crusaders got off to another quick start Tuesday, as Broekhoff opened the scoring with a 3-pointer and then had a putback 6:26 into the game to give Valpo an 11-4 lead. After the Raiders closed back within two at 11-9, Van Wijk scored four points and Ben Boggs five in a 9-1 spurt which put the Crusaders ahead 20-10 just over ten minutes into the game.
Wright State rallied, making it 22-19 with 7:17 left in the first half, but the Crusaders reeled off ten straight points over nearly a five-minute stretch to make it 32-19. Four different Crusaders scored during the run, including a three-pointer from Will Bogan and an old-fashioned three-point play by Erik Buggs.
Valpo led 34-22 with 2:09 to play in the opening period after a basket by Buggs, but the Raiders scored the final six points of the first half to make it a six-point Crusader lead at the break.
An inside hoop from Van Wijk and a baseline jumper by Bogan made it a double-digit lead once again less than two minutes into the second half, but most of the final 20 minutes was played within single digits. Four times during the middle stages of the half, Wright State would rally to within one possession, but each time Valpo was up to the challenge.
Kenney answered a Reggie Arceneaux 3-pointer with a trifecta of his own with 11:24 to play, making it 51-45 Crusaders. After Wright State scored on each of its next two trips, Van Wijk drew a foul and converted both free throws to push the lead back to four points with 9:48 remaining. After a second-chance basket by the Raiders, Broekhoff drilled two free throws to again make it a four-point lead, and Kenney got to the line once Wright State made it again a two-point game with under six minutes to play, knocking down both free throws as the final stretch approached.
Van Wijk led the Crusaders with a stellar inside effort on Tuesday, finishing with 20 points and matching his season high with nine rebounds. The effort marked the fourth 20-plus point game of the year for the senior. Kenney added 15 points off the bench, 13 of which came in the second half, as well as five rebounds and three assists. Despite a rough night from the field, Broekhoff also finished in double figures with 10 points.
Valpo out-rebounded the Raiders 31-27, led by Van Wijk’s nine boards and seven rebounds from Bobby Capobianco. The Crusaders overcame a 4-of-16 effort from behind the arc, going 19-of-31 (61.3 percent) from 2-point range and 18-of-20 (90 percent) from the foul line.
Wright State received a career-high 23 points off the bench from Pacher, while Miles Dixon was the only other Raider in double figures, also coming off the bench with 13 points. The Crusader defense limited WSU to just 3-of-13 shooting from three-point range as the Raiders were 23-of-55 overall from the floor.
Milwaukee 71, Loyola 53
Milwaukee shot 64 percent in the second half and held Loyola to 24-percent shooting over the same span to rally for a 71-53 win over the Ramblers at the Klotsche Center.
Milwaukee (6-20, 2-10 Horizon) snapped a seven-game losing streak while closing within a game of Loyola (13-12, 3-9 Horizon) in the Horizon League standings.
Early, it appeared as if the Ramblers might be able to run away from the host Panthers as six Ramblers scored as Loyola opened up a 16-7 lead six and a half minutes into the contest. However, Milwaukee buckled down defensively and Loyola went cold, suffering under a seven -minute scoreless spell.
Still, Loyola gathered itself and finished the first half with a flourish, outscoring Milwaukee, 7-0 the rest of the way, with Cully Payne’s long three-pointer from the top of the key just before the buzzer sending the Ramblers into the locker room with a 27-22 lead.
After Jordan Hicks opened the second-half scoring with a layup to push Loyola’s lead to seven, a jumper by Demetrius Harris ignited a 19-3 Panther run that gave the hosts a 41-32 lead and control of the game.
Devon Turk’s three-pointer with 6:16 remaining got Loyola within 54-49, but Milwaukee would then rattle off 10 of the next 11 points to regain control and never looked back as Loyola dropped its fourth straight contest.
Hicks, who came into the game averaging 18.0 points in his last three games against Milwaukee, led the way for Loyola, which played without injured starters Ben Averkamp and Joe Crisman, with 12 points. Turk pitched in 11 points off the bench, while Nick Osborne matched Turk’s output with a career-best 11 points of his own. Christian Thomas narrowly missed a double double with 10 points and nine rebounds.
Paris Gulley scored 21 points, hitting 13-of-16 attempts from the charity stripe, to lead Milwaukee. Loyola, which entered the game 41st in the country with a 73.6-percent mark at the free-throw line, went just 12-of-23 at the line.
J.J. Panoske tallied a school-record seven blocks, adding seven points and six rebounds. Jordan Aaron joined Gulley in double figures with 16 points.
