Men's Basketball Final Shot: Feb. 2 - The Road

Men’s Basketball Scoreboard (Feb. 2)
Green Bay 73, Loyola 65
Cleveland State 77, UIC 66

Horizon League road teams entered Saturday with just 14 wins in 40 chances. However, Saturday saw road teams take both games in men’s basketball action, coming at the expense of the Horizon League’s two Chicago members.

Green Bay 73, Loyola 65
Its small forward went down with a knee injury in the opening minute. The starting point guard departed in the first minute of the second half because of an ankle sprain suffered in the first half. And after squandering an 11-point lead, it would have been easy for Green Bay to lick its wounds up I-43 after a disappointing loss to Loyola. Instead, the Phoenix composed themselves and rallied for a 73-65 win over the Ramblers in the Horizon League Network Game of the Week.

Green Bay (12-11, 6-4 Horizon) moved into sole possession of third place in the Horizon League after splitting its four road games, alternating losses and wins. The Phoenix played nearly the entire game without Daniel Turner (knee) and the second half without Sykes (ankle).

In each of those victories, Alec Brown set a career high for scoring. Last Friday at Milwaukee, Brown finished with 23 points as he joined the 1,000-career points club. This afternoon, Brown put the Phoenix on his back, scoring 25 points on 10-of-14 shooting.

After leading 34-28 at the break, Green Bay’s lead hit 11, 43-32, after seven-straight points from Brown, but a 15-3 run by the Ramblers midway through the half gave the hosts a 55-50 lead with 6:40 to play. Green Bay played the stretch without Sykes, who suffered an ankle injury late in the first half and attempted to play through it to start the second before limping off.

With Green Bay’s offense sputtering, it was Loyola which cranked up its efficiency, as a Christian Thomas  dunk sparked Loyola to a 21-7 spurt that turned the 11-point deficit into a 55-50 lead with 6:40 left in the contest. Back-to-back baskets by Jordan Hicks, including three-pointer from the left corner, capped the Rambler offensive surge.

The Phoenix stormed right back however, scoring 10 unanswered points to take a 60-55 lead, with guard Sultan Muhammad notching five of his 14 points during that decisive stretch. Muhammad drained a three-pointer on the next possession, and three minutes later Cole Stefan capped the run with his third triple of the game with 3:33 to play.

After a Loyola bucket, Brennan Cougill made a three-pointer from the top of the key for a 63-57 lead, and the closest the Ramblers would come down the stretch would be on a Devon Turk three-pointer from the right corner. Turk’s three matched the Loyola single-season record for triples (42) and made it 66-62, but Green Bay would convert seven of eight attempts from the free throw line down the stretch to seal the win.

Green Bay shot a sizzling 65 percent (13-for-20) from the field in the second half, and 58 percent for the game, to snare with the win.

Muhammad scored 11 of his 14 points after halftime, and Stefan finished with 13 points. The transfer entered Saturday having scored 12 points all season. The two guards combined to go 8-of-13 from the field, 4-of-7 from long range. Muhammad had three assists and zero turnovers while Stefan grabbed five rebounds.

Led by Jordan Fouse, Green Bay held a 32-20 advantage on the glass. Playing a career-high 38 minutes, Fouse grabbed a career-best 13 rebounds while adding eight points, four assists, three steals and a block.

All but five of the Ramblers' points came from their starting five, with Ben Averkamp leading the way with 17 points and six rebounds. Thomas tossed in 16 points, while Hicks added 15. Cully Payne pitched in 10 points and eight assists, one off his career best, for Loyola, which committed only 11 turnovers and shot 48 percent (25-for-52) from the field.

Loyola opens a stretch of three consecutive road games when it visits Wright State Monday night. With its four-game road trip in the books, Green Bay returns home this week for games against Wright State (Thursday, 7 p.m.) and Detroit (Saturday, 1 p.m.).

Cleveland State 77, UIC 66
One of the frustrating aspects of having a young team is the inconsistency that occurs throughout the season. Cleveland State head coach Gary Waters has lamented his youthful bunch’s inability to translate practice talent to game situations, but on Saturday night, the Vikings delivered, holding off UIC, 77-66, at the Pavilion.

Cleveland State (11-12, 3-6 Horizon) collected its first road win in Horizon League play while snapping a four-game skid. UIC (14-9, 5-5 Horizon) saw its three-game winning streak come to an end as it allowed the Vikings to shoot 50.9-percent from the field. CSU extended its win streak over the Flames to 12 straight and 14 of the last 15.

Underclassmen scored 64 of Cleveland State’s 77 points in the win, 22 of which came from Marlin Mason. In just 19 minutes, Mason provided the spark off the bench for the Vikings, going 8-of-12 from the floor.

Mason was joined off the bench by Junior Lomomba, who posted 13. The duo was especially effective in the first half, as Mason gave Cleveland State a lead it would not relinquish with 14:06 remaining in the first half, knocking down the first of his three three-pointers.

Lomomba would hit his first three of the game late in the first half, pushing Cleveland State’s lead to six before Mason beat the buzzer with a tip-in to send the Vikings into the half with a 34-26 advantage.

In a similar script to the teams’ first meeting, in which the Vikings handed UIC a 60-50 defeat, the Flames would hit the first bucket of the second half before CSU went on a game-deciding run.

The Vikings answered with 12 straight points to open up a 46-28 lead on a Devon Long layup. A pair of UIC three-pointers brought the Flames back within 48-34, but the Vikings scored 10 of the next 12 points, capped by a Mason three-pointer, to take a 58-36 lead midway through the second half.

The Flames had one last run, cutting their deficit to 62-55 - the last 12 points coming at the free throw line - but Charlie Lee hit two free throws and a floater in the lane to extend CSU's lead back to 11, 66-55, with 1:24 left.

Lee collected a double-double with 11 points and 10 assists, while Bryn Forbes extended his double-digit scoring streak to 13 straight games, finishing with 10.

Supported by a 9-of-10 effort at the free-throw line, Gary Talton led UIC with 16 points. Daniel Barnes came off the bench to score 14 for the Flames, who shot just 37.5-percent on the night. Hayden Humes added 12 and Josh Crittle 11 for UIC.

CSU is back in action on Tuesday, Feb. 5, when the Vikings host Youngstown State at 7:00 p.m. in the Wolstein Center. UIC will travel to Valparaiso on Thursday, Feb. 7, for an 8:05 p.m. EST game on HLN.