Peters Leads Valpo to Win

Men's Basketball Scoreboard (Nov. 21)
Valparaiso 59, Arkansas-Pine Bluff 46
Eastern Michigan 71, Youngstown State 62
Oklahoma State 82, Milwaukee 68
Yale 70, UIC 58

Valparaiso 59, Arkansas-Pine Bluff 46
Valparaiso dominated the interior in its opening matchup of the Central Michigan Tournament against Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Friday from Mount Pleasant, Mich., using the advantage inside both offensively and on the glass to lead the way in a 59-46 Crusader victory.

Sophomore Alec Peters (Washington, Ill./Washington) led the way for the Crusaders on Friday, time and again finding soft spots in the middle of the Lions’ zone defense and converting.  Peters was 8-of-9 on attempts from inside the 3-point line en route to a game-high 19 points.  The sophomore also grabbed seven rebounds, five of which were on the offensive end – three of which he converted immediately into second-chance baskets.

The Crusaders pounded UAPB on the glass all night long, out-rebounding the Lions by a 37-20 margin.  Incredibly, of Valpo’s 29 misses, the Crusaders corralled offensive rebounds 18 times and allowed UAPB just 11 defensive boards.  Valpo converted its 18 offensive rebounds into 16 second-chance points.  Sophomore Jubril Adekoya (Tinley Park, Ill./Andrew) and senior Vashil Fernandez (Kingston, Jamaica/Princeton Day [Md.] Academy) each joined Peters with seven rebounds apiece.

For Fernandez, coming off a double-double two nights ago, he parlayed that effort into another strong outing against UAPB.  The senior went 3-of-4 from the floor –including a pair of dunks - and 5-of-6 from the foul line for 11 points, the first time in his career Fernandez has scored in double figures in consecutive games.  He also blocked five shots, matching the second-highest output of his career, and now has 84 career blocks, tied with Antti Nikkila for seventh-most in Crusader history.

The Crusaders led throughout, but could not put UAPB away in the opening 20 minutes after starting the game on a 9-2 run over the first 3:30, which included four points from Fernandez.  The Lions closed back within two points by scoring the next five points, and Valpo settled in to holding a single-digit lead for much of the period.

The Crusaders finally earned a double-digit edge on a triple from Peters with three minutes to go in the first half, and a 3-pointer by junior Keith Carter (Maywood, Ill./Proviso East [Saint Louis]) with about 45 seconds to go in the period made it 35-24 Valpo.  But UAPB’s Thaddeus Handley got inside for a layup on the Lions’ last possession of the half to make it 35-26 at halftime.

Out of the locker room, it was all Valpo to put the game away.  The Crusader defense forced four UAPB turnovers in the first five possessions of the second half, and offensively Valpo scored on four of its first five trips.  Peters opened the half with back-to-back baskets, junior Darien Walker (Chicago, Ill./Simeon [John A. Logan/Arizona Western]) knocked down a long two with the shot clock winding down, and Carter finished a fast break with a layup after a Tevonn Walker (Montreal, Quebec/Vanier College) steal as the quick 8-0 spurt out of the gate made it 43-26 Valpo with 17:23 to play.

It was academic from there, as the Crusaders pushed their lead up to 20 points on a Tevonn Walker triple with 15:21 remaining.  Valpo’s advantage peaked at 21 points a number of times, and only a 10-2 stretch from UAPB over the game’s final 5:45 made the final margin as close as it was.

Carter had a strong night at the point for the Crusaders, scoring seven points and handing out a career-best seven assists as well.  On the night, Valpo shot just 46.9% (23-of-49) from the field and just 26.3% (5-of-19) from behind the arc while committing 17 turnovers, but the Crusader defense limited Arkansas-Pine Bluff (1-3) to just 37.8% shooting and forced 17 turnovers as well.

Eastern Michigan 71, Youngstown State 62
Four players scored in double figures, led by junior Bobby Hain's 15 points, but the Youngstown State men's basketball team dropped a 71-62 decision to Eastern Michigan on Friday evening at the Convocation Center.

Sophomore Jalon Plummer scored a career-high 13 points while sophomore Marcus Keene recorded 12 points and eight assists and senior Shawn Amiker added 10 points for the Penguins (1-3).

Eastern Michigan (3-0) was led by Karrington Love's 19 points while Anali Okoloji and Raven Lee each had 16 points.

In a game that featured eight lead changes and 10 ties, the Penguins more field goals than the Eagles (23-20) and each team made eight 3-pointers. Eastern Michigan went-23-of-30 from the free-throw line while the Penguins made just 8-of-12 from the charity stripe.

With the game tied a 33-33 at halftime, the Eagles jumped out the a 45-40 lead just three minutes into the second half sparked by five points each from Ward and Okoloji.

The Penguins scored the next seven points on a 3-pointer by Plummer, a putback dunk by Sidney Umude and another layup by Umude to take a 47-45 lead with 14:45 to go.

Following a 3-pointer by Keene that gave the Penguins a 50-48 edge, the Eagles scored five straight to regain a three-point lead, 53-50, midway through the second half.

Hain hit a jumper to get the Penguins within one, 53-52, but the Eagles extended the lead to six, 60-54, with 5:59 to go after a jumper by Ward.

The Penguins answered with a 3-pointer by Hain at the 5:30 mark to cut the deficit back to three, 60-57, and trailed by three, 62-59, after another jumper by Hain with 3:05 left.

Eastern Michigan turned the ball over on consecutive possession, but the Penguins missed a pair of game-tying 3-point attempts.

Okoloji buried a 3-pointer with 1:17 left and after two free throws by Lee and another by Ward, the Eagles pushed their lead up to nine points, 68-59.

Amiker made a 3-pointer with 27 seconds left, but Eastern Michigan made three more free throws downs the stretch.

In first half, the Penguins fell by eight points, 16-8 in the first five minutes of the game, and trailed by seven, 20-13, midway through the half.

The Penguins, though, went on a 10-0 run over the next three minutes to take a 23-20 lead. A 3-pointer by Shaun Stewart followed by a jumper and layup by Plummer knotted the game at 20-20 with 9:26 to go.

Plummer gave the Penguins their first lead of the game with the old-fashioned three-point play and two free throws by Hain capped the 10-0 run.

After four more ties, the Penguins went up by four, 33-29, after a 3-pointer by Keen at the 1:21 mark, but layups by Raven and Ward in the final 1:11 tied the game at 33-33.

Oklahoma State 82, Milwaukee 68
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's (1-3) spirited rally ultimately came up short in an 82-68 loss at Oklahoma State (4-0) tonight. Milwaukee, which shot 59 percent from the field in the second half, was led by Steve McWhorter, who scored 18 points, giving him three consecutive games in doubles figures.

"If we were able to redo the first 20 minutes, I'd feel a lot better about the game," Milwaukee Head Coach Rob Jeter said. "We took better care of the basketball in the second half, our tempo was better and we got post touches. I'm proud of how we competed in the second half."

Milwaukee, which received 13 points from its bench in the first half, including nine courtesy of a trio of three-pointers from Cody Wichmann, struggled with the Cowboys' size and pressure in the opening 20 minutes. The Panthers, who came into the game averaging only 9.0 turnovers per game, committed 13 miscues in the first half alone.

But, after trailing by as many as 21 points in the game, the Panther slowly chipped away at the deficit in the second half and when J.R. Lyle scored on a layup with 6:58 remaining, Milwaukee found itself within 73-62 with 6:58 to go. Lyle's bucket capped a 22-13 Panthers run.

A basket by McWhorter with a shade over five minutes remaining made it 76-66, but Milwaukee was unable to get closer than that the rest of the way, hitting only 1 of its final 7 shots after opening the half by draining 15 of its first 20 attempts.

Milwaukee, which turned the ball over only four times in the second half, wound up outrebounding a bigger Cowboys squad, 32-26.

McWhorter just missed out on recording a double-double, dishing out nine assists and grabbing six rebounds to go with his team-high 18 points to lead the Panthers. Matt Tiby pitched in 10 points and Wichmann, Lyle and J.J. Panoske tallied nine points apiece.

Phil Forte scored 20 points to pace Oklahoma State, which saw three other players score in double digits – Le'Bryan Nash (17), Michael Cobbins (15) and Anthony Hickey (15).

Yale 70, UIC  58
The UIC men's basketball team (1-2) dropped its first game of the Men Against Breast Cancer Classic versus Yale (2-1) on Friday night by a final score of 70-58. The Flames were paced in scoring by senior Marc Brown and juniors Paris Burns and Jake Wiegand all with nine points apiece.

Yale, the preseason runner-up selection in the Ivy League, never trailed the Flames and shot 9-of-20 from three-point range. The Bulldogs were led in scoring by Ivy League Preseason Player of the Year Justin Sears with 16 points, while Javier Duren, Armani Cotton and Jack Montague scored in double digits with 15, 11 and 10 points, respectively.

The Bulldogs jumped out to a 12-4 lead by the 15:55 mark spurred by a pair of triples from Montague.  UIC fought back with a 10-2 run to knot the score at 14-14 with 11:40 left in the first half. Yale quickly took the lead back with a 9-0 spurt, including six straight points from Cotton to produce a 40-26 halftime tally.

The Flames pulled to within 10 points of Yale twice in the second half, but the Bulldogs held on to their double-digit lead for the remainder of the game.

UIC did outscore Yale, 32-30, in the final period and hit 4-of-9 from downtown, including two from sophomore Markese McGuire who ended the night with eight points.

Junior D'Juan Miller led the Flames with five assists as Wiegand grabbed a team-high five rebounds.