Men's Basketball Final Shot: Jan. 17 - Two Home Wins & One Epic Comeback

Men’s Basketball Scoreboard (Jan. 17)
Valparaiso 89, Detroit 88
Green Bay 67, Youngstown State 58
Milwaukee 69, Cleveland State 57

With road wins hard to come by in the Horizon League, Valparaiso made multiple statements in rallying for its third such win this season. Green Bay and Milwaukee reaffirmed the notion that collecting League road victories are a challenge, defending their respective home courts on Thursday night.

Valparaiso 89, Detroit 88
It started innocently enough. An easy seal and lob to the rim. A casual three-pointer from the corner. A pair of free throws. But add it all up, and it amounted to one of the largest comebacks in Horizon League history. Trailing by 22 points with 17:08 to play, Valparaiso stunned Detroit, 89-88, at Calihan Hall.

Valparaiso (14-5, 4-1 Horizon) snapped a second-place tie with Detroit (11-7, 3-2 Horizon), and in the process ended the Titans’ 17-game home winning streak. Detroit had won its last 22 games when scoring 80 or more points.

The Crusaders countered Nick Minnerath’s career-high 36 points by feeding Kevin Van Wijk repeatedly in the second half. The Dutchman finished with a career-best 31, keeping Valparaiso in the game throughout the beginning of the half.

Three free throws from Minnerath with 17:08 remaining gave Detroit its largest lead of the game, 60-38, but Valparaiso began whittling away the deficit, closing within 71-60 at the 10:26 mark after a three-pointer from Matt Kenney.

Valparaiso was able to close within three possessions on several occasions, but Doug Anderson seemingly blunted the Crusaders’ momentum with a put-back slam, restoring Detroit’s edge to 80-70, with 6:01 to play. A driving layup from Anderson would push the lead back to 12, but Valparaiso would close the game on a 19-6 run.

Ryan Broekhoff got the kick started with a three, following a Van Wijk layup with two free throws at the 3:20 mark. Down by nine, it would be two more threes from Kenney that put the pressure squarely on the Titans, as Kenney’s second made it 88-83 with 1:48 to play.

Following a Detroit turnover, the Crusaders found Van Wijk down low for a bucket, bringing Valparaiso within a single possession, 88-85. Two free throws from Van Wijk sliced the deficit to 88-87, and Detroit turned the ball over, directly into the hands of Broekhoff. With the senior headed up court, he was fouled, sending him to the line with 17.4 seconds left.

The senior drilled both free throws, giving Valparaiso its first lead of the game.

The Crusaders would weather two game-winning attempts, the first coming from Evan Bruinsma with seven seconds to play, and the last coming from Minnerath with 2.1 remaining.

The comeback marked just the third time this season a team led for 20 seconds or less and won; St. May’s led for just one second in its win over Harvard, while Arizona led by seven seconds in its victory against Florida.

The final sequence ruined an evening in which Detroit shot 21-of-31 in the first half and thoroughly outplayed Valparaiso in the first 20 minutes. Minnerath scored 21 in the opening half, hitting 9-of-11 shots and seemingly scoring at will.

Defensively, the Titans flummoxed the Crusaders, forcing Valparaiso into 10 turnovers. Valpo had five turnovers in the second half.

Van Wijk finished 13-of-15 from the floor, adding five rebounds as he finished with a 0.544 efficiency-per-possession rating. Broekhoff was close behind with a 0.406 rating, adding 18 points and nine boards. Kenney had 12 points, going 4-of-5 from three-point range.

Minnerath posted a 0.622 efficiency-per-possession, going 12-of-17 from the floor en route to his career effort. Anderson added 17, finishing 8-of-11 from the field, while Jason Calliste chipped in with 14.

Valparaiso will host Wright State (13-4, 4-0 Horizon) on Saturday, with the winner claiming first place in the Horizon League. Detroit will welcome UIC (11-7, 2-3 Horizon) to Dick Vitale Court at Calihan Hall on Saturday.

Green Bay 67, Youngstown State 58
Continuing its stifling defensive effort, Green Bay held Youngstown State to 30.5-percent shooting en route to a 67-58 win at the Resch Center.

Green Bay (9-9, 3-2 Horizon) returned to .500 overall, winning its sixth consecutive game at the Resch Center. In its streak, the Phoenix are limiting opponents to just 49.2 points per game.

Trailing 35-34 with 11:58 to play, Green Bay grabbed control of the game by holding Youngstown State (9-8, 1-3 Horizon) without a field goal for 7:37, by which time the Phoenix had assumed a 51-38 lead.

Kam Cerroni got the 17-3 burst started with a jumper off a feed from Daniel Turner, before a Brennan Cougill layup gave Green Bay a 39-35 edge. Free throws from Jordan Fouse and Turner would extend the lead to seven, 43-36, before Keifer Sykes got to the rim, pushing the Phoenix in front, 45-36.

Carrington Love would add a layup to force a Youngstown State timeout with 6:50 to play, but the Penguins could not get past the stout Green Bay defense, with two Alec Brown jumpers capping the burst.

Youngstown State could draw no closer than six points down the stretch, as the Phoenix went 7-of-8 at the free-throw line to seal the result.

Fouse led the Phoenix with 12 points, finishing one rebound shy of his second career double-double.  Sykes went 4-of-12 from the floor, but added 10 points. Bringing just three players off the bench, Green Bay was aided by 31 bench points; Cougill and Love each chipped in 11, while Turner added nine.

On a night in which Kendrick Perry scored a game-high 21, Green Bay made him work to the tune of 6-of-15 shooting. Blake Allen joined Perry in double figures with 10. Youngstown State was just 18-of-59 in the game.

Green Bay will host Cleveland State in the Horizon League Network Game of the Week on Saturday, while Youngstown State will head down I-43 to meet Milwaukee.

Milwaukee 69, Cleveland State 57
Milwaukee rode its hot shooting from three-point range, making six in each half, to knock off Cleveland State, 69-57, at the Klotsche Center.

Milwaukee (5-13, 1-3 Horizon) snapped a three-game losing streak, while sending Cleveland State (10-9, 2-3 Horizon) to its eighth road loss of the year.

Austin Arians came off the Panthers bench to nearly post his first career double-double, finishing with a career-high 19 points and nine rebounds. The combination of Jordan Aaron, Paris Gulley, Arians, Ryan Haggerty and J.J. Panoske was plus-19 in the game, outscoring Cleveland State, 39-20.

Entering the night with a 27.0-percent mark from three-point range, the Panthers connected on 12-of-25 attempts. Arians went 5-of-9 from beyond the arc, finishing 6-of-12 overall.

Both teams struggled from the field in the opening 20 minutes, but Milwaukee used hot shooting from three-point to take a 28-21 lead at halftime. The Panthers went just 9-of-27 from the field in the first half, but hit six three-pointers. Arians hit the final Panther three of the first half with 7:17 to play that gave Milwaukee its biggest lead of the half, 26-18.

A near three-minute scoring drought followed until a free throw by Luda Ndaye and a Marlin Mason layup brought the Vikings back within 26-21 with 3:37 left.

Leading 28-21 at the half, Paris Gulley opened the second frame with a three, triggering a 13-5 Milwaukee run that pushed its lead to 39-23.

Cleveland State slowly began to find its offensive rhythm, using a Bryn Forbes three-pointer to cap a 12-2 run and bring CSU within six points, 41-35, with just over 12 minutes left.

However, Gulley answered with seven straight points - on four free throws and a three-pointer - to start an 11-3 Milwaukee run that pushed the lead back to 14, 52-38.

Milwaukee continued to ride its hot three-point shooting the rest of the way as the Vikings tried to battle back late.

CSU hit just 7-of-24 from three-point range and was 24-of-71 from the field.

Forbes led the Vikings with 16 points and six rebounds. Charlie Lee scored 15 points with five rebounds and five assists and Sebastian Douglas scored 10 points and chipped in four rebounds.

Gulley added 17 to Arians effort, knocking down 3-of-5 attempts from three-point range. Haggerty came off the bench to chip in 12 on 5-of-5 shooting. On the evening, Milwaukee had 31 bench points, compare to Cleveland State’s eight.

Jordan Aaron finished with just five points, but had 10 assists.