Men's Basketball Scoreboard (Jan. 17)
Cleveland State 74, Youngstown State 61
Green Bay 70, Detroit 64
Valparaiso 66, Wright State 56
Cleveland State 74, Youngstown State 61
Cleveland State maintained its hold on first place in the Horizon League with a 74-61 victory at Youngstown State on Saturday night.
The Vikings improved to 11-9 overall and 5-1 in the Horizon League, while YSU slipped to 9-12 overall and 0-6 in the league.
CSU also moved to 3-1 on the road in the league, having opened the slate with four of six away from home.
Trey Lewis scored 29 points, including a 7-of-13 effort from three-point, for his 11th career 20-point game. Anton Grady posted his second straight double-double and third in the Horizon League with 11 points and 10 rebounds, while Charlie Lee added 14 points and a season-best eight assists.
Marlin Mason finished with eight points and seven rebounds, while Vinny Zollo scored 11 points with four rebounds off the bench.
"I thought our defense was extremely tight on them tonight," head coach Gary Waters said. "It was hard for them to score. Starting 5-1 in the league with four games on the road is a good start because we know these teams have to come back to our place."
YSU, which was playing at home for just the second time in the Horizon League season, jumped out to an 8-2 lead four minutes in. But the Vikings stormed back, scoring 11 straight points to take a 13-8 lead on a Lewis three-pointer midway through the first half.
The lead grew to as many as 10 points (24-14) at the 5:39 mark of the first half and the Vikings held a nine-point halftime lead (31-22) behind 16 points from Lewis.
Shawn Amiker scored three straight baskets to open the second half as the CSU lead was sliced to 31-28. The Vikings answered with a 16-4 run, capped by an alley-oop from Lewis to Mason, that pushed the Viking lead to 47-32 with 13:42 to play.
The CSU advantage would reach 21 points (64-43) on a Zollo basket off an assist from Lee.
The Vikings shot .482 (27-56) from the field, including 16-of-23 (.696) in the second half. CSU also grabbed 12 offensive rebounds and committed just eight turnovers while forcing 17 Penguin miscues.
Marcus Keene led YSU with 14 points, while Bobby Hain added 11 points and eight rebounds.
Green Bay 70, Detroit 64
Seniors Keifer Sykes (Chicago, Ill.) and Greg Mays (Chicago, Ill.) combined for 43 points, including 29 in the second half, as visiting Green Bay (15-4, 4-1 HL) rallied from behind to beat Detroit (9-10, 3-2 HL) 70-64 in Horizon League men’s basketball action at Calihan Hall. The Phoenix bounced back from a 69-66 loss at Oakland on Thursday night, winning its 15th straight regular season game following a loss.
Sykes poured in 18 of his game-high 28 points in the second half, making 7-of-10 shots and his last two three-pointers. Mays added 15 points, 11 rebounds, three blocks and three steals for his fifth-straight double-figure effort. Junior Carrington Love (Milwaukee, Wis.) added 14 points, six rebounds and five assists.
Detroit raced out to a 10-2 lead early on and led by as many as 10 (26-16) with 5:48 to play before halftime. Senior Alfonzo McKinnie (Chicago, Ill.) scored five points during a quick 7-0 run, and Sykes scored at the buzzer to cut the margin to 30-27 at the break.
The Titans’ lead was 37-32 with 16:12 to play, but a three-point play from Mays and a Sykes triple gave the Phoenix the lead for the first time at 38-37. Green Bay’s run hit 12-1 as the visitors opened up a 44-38 advantage with 13:30 on the clock.
Green Bay’s lead was still six with 6:11 remaining, but the Titans went on an 8-2 run to tie the game at 57 just two minutes later. Love buried a three on the next possession, and the Phoenix led the rest of the way.
The lead was 60-59 when Sykes buried a long three-pointer and then made two free throws moments later to put Green Bay in front 65-59. After Detroit closed to 67-64, Love sank a free throw and Mays made two more for the final margin.
The Phoenix made 14-of-27 shots after halftime, including 4-of-8 three-pointers. Green Bay knocked down 73.9 percent from the free-throw line for the game (17-23).
Valparaiso 66, Wright State 56
Sophomore Alec Peters (Washington, Ill./Washington) re-entered Saturday night’s against Wright State for Valparaiso with the Crusaders trailing by two points and 8:49 to play. By the time head coach Bryce Drew made his next substitution, there was less than a minute remaining and the Crusaders were up by double figures en route to a 66-56 win over the Raiders. The win moves Valpo to 17-3 overall for the first time in 70 years.
Peters was joined on the court during the crucial stretch by senior Vashil Fernandez (Kingston, Jamaica/Princeton Day [Md.] Academy), junior E. Victor Nickerson (Atlanta, Ga./Norcross [Charlotte]) and freshmen David Skara (Zadar, Croatia/Ekonomska Skola Zadar) and Tevonn Walker (Toronto, Ontario/Vanier College). The quintet out-scored Wright State 26-14 over an eight-minute stretch to set up the Crusaders for the victory.
Nickerson was the catalyst early on for the group on the floor for Valpo, driving for a layup deep in the shot clock to tie the game at 40-all, and then after a WSU miss, again connecting late in the shot clock, this time from 3-point range to give the Crusaders a 43-40 lead. WSU’s Michael Karena hit a shot from close range to make it a one-point game, and while Peters would knock down a triple on Valpo’s next possession, the Raiders got a 3-pointer of their own from Joe Thomasson to make it just 46-45 Valpo.
After a turnover, WSU had two shots to claim the lead, but could connect on neither, and the Crusaders would score on their next five possessions to pull away. Walker started the stretch by single-handedly dribbling through the Raider press and going all the way to the basket for a layup, and then on Valpo’s next trip, Walker drove and finished in the half-court to push the Crusader lead to 50-45 with 4:45 to play.
Nickerson grabbed a rebound off his own miss on Valpo’s next possession and was fouled, splitting a pair of free throws to make it a six-point game. Fernandez then stepped up, forcing an errant shot on the defensive end and scoring at the rim while being fouled on offense, extending the lead to 53-45. Then, after a blocked shot by Peters on a 3-point attempt, Fernandez took advantage of a five-guard lineup for Wright State, as he posted up and easily made a post move for a hook shot in close, making it a double-figure advantage for the first time in the second half.
Wright State wouldn’t fold, hitting triples on two of its next three possessions to make it a five-point game as the clock ticked under two minutes. Again Fernandez would come up big, taking the inbound pass against WSU’s press and hitting both free throws after he was fouled. Then, after a Raider miss, Nickerson broke the Raider pressure and found Fernandez all alone in close, where he finished through contact to make it 60-51 with just 1:29 to play. The Crusaders would hit 6-of-8 free throws down the stretch as the Raiders never got any closer than eight points in the final 90 seconds.
Valpo got off to a strong start Saturday, scoring the first six points of the game to claim the lead quickly. Then, with WSU within 10-8 six minutes in, the Crusaders reeled off a 14-5 run over the next six minutes – including four points apiece from Fernandez and junior Darien Walker (Chicago, Ill./Simeon [John A. Logan/Arizona Western]) – to push their lead to 24-13 with 7:36 to play in the half. With the lead down to six points, Walker would connect on a 3-pointer with 4:35 remaining in the opening period to make it 29-20, but the Raiders scored the final seven points of the half to cut the Crusader lead to 29-27 at the break.
The Raiders took their first lead of the game with 17:56 to play on a fast-break layup by Kendall Griffin, taking advantage of the fact the Crusaders would score just one point in the first four minutes of the period. Save for a stretch of 18 seconds, the teams were within one possession for the opening 13 minutes of the half, as neither side would gain control until Valpo’s big run late.
For the second time in five league games, Fernandez paced the Crusaders in the scoring column, going 6-of-8 from the field in a 14-point effort. The senior also grabbed a game-high nine rebounds, leading the way as Valpo out-rebounded Wright State 46-25 – the 10th time this year the Crusaders have held a double-digit advantage in the category. 17 of Valpo’s boards came on the offensive glass as the Crusaders finished with 18 second-chance points.
Fernandez had plenty of help offensively, as four Valpo players scored in double figures. Darien Walker ended the night with 13 points on 6-of-11 shooting, leading the way offensively in the first half, as he scored 11 of his points in the first 20 minutes.
Tevonn Walker scored 11 points and grabbed five rebounds, and Peters – despite being held without a field goal until 28 minutes into the game – finished with 11 points and seven rebounds as well. The Crusaders, playing without starting point guard Keith Carter for the third straight game, shot just 22-of-54 (40.7%) for the game from the floor and were just 3-of-12 from behind the 3-point line, but grabbed nearly as many offensive rebounds as the Raiders picked up on the defensive glass.
Wright State (10-9, 2-3 Horizon), playing without leading scorer JT Yoho, was led by 10 points from Reggie Arceneaux. Chrishawn Hopkins and Michael Karena added nine points each, while Griffin finished with six points, five rebounds and six assists. The Crusaders limited the Raiders to just 37.7% shooting from the field, the fourth straight game and sixth out of the last seven that Valpo has held its opponent under 40% on field goals.
