Second-Half Runs Push Cleveland State, Youngstown State to Big Wins

Men’s Basketball Scoreboard (Feb. 5):
Cleveland State 70, UIC 42
Youngstown State 80, Loyola 63

Men’s Basketball Standings (through Feb. 5):
1. Cleveland State           10-2
2. Valparaiso                    10-3
3. Youngstown State       8-5
    Milwaukee                     8-5
5. Detroit                            7-6
    Butler                              7-6
7. Wright State                  6-7
8. Green Bay                     5-7
9. UIC                                 3-10
10. Loyola                          0-13

Second-half bursts sent Cleveland State and Youngstown State to road wins on Super Bowl Sunday, with the Vikings remaining in first place and the Penguins moving into a tie for third place in the Horizon League.

Cleveland State 70, UIC 42
Shooting 56 percent from the field, Cleveland State collected its 20^th win of the season with a 70-42 victory at UIC on Sunday afternoon at UIC Pavilion.

The win gave the Vikings 20 wins for the ninth time in program history, including four of the last five seasons. Cleveland State (20-4, 10-2 Horizon) maintained its grip on first place in the Horizon League, one-half game ahead of Valparaiso. UIC (7-16, 3-10 Horizon) remained in ninth place.

Jeremy Montgomery led the Vikings with 14 points, all in the second half, in his final game in his native Chicago. He went 4-of-5 from three-point. Making his first career start, Anton Grady notched his third double-double of the season with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Trey Harmon scored 13 points and Tim Kamczyc added 10.

Grady hit all six of his field goals and went 10-of-10 from the field in CSU's two wins in Chicago this weekend.

Two days after blitzing Loyola for 68 percent shooting, the third highest in school history, the Vikings did the same thing to UIC, hitting 28-of-50 (.560) from the field. It marked the fourth time in the last five games that CSU hit at 50 percent or better from the floor.

CSU built a 24-17 halftime lead, but went on to outscore the Flames, 46-25, in the second half. The Vikings hit 17-of-27 (.630) from the field in the second half, including a scorching 8-of-11 (.727) from three-point.

The Vikings tenacious defensive pressure forced UIC into a 15-of-55 (.273) effort from the floor, the lowest by a CSU opponent this season.

The 42 points marked the lowest by a Viking opponent this year and the seventh time a team failed to score 50 points against CSU, including three straight.

UIC was led by Darrin Williams’ 12 points, while Hayden Humes had 11 in helping the Flames keep within striking distance over the game’s first 30 minutes. Daniel Barnes was the third player in double figures with 10 points.

The victory sets up a matchup with Valparaiso (17-8, 10-3 Horizon) on Thursday at the Wolstein Center, with the winner grabbing the inside track on the No. 1 seed in the Horizon League Tournament. The Horizon League Network will have the game at 7 p.m. ET.

Youngstown State 80, UIC 63
Kendrick Perry wrapped up a sensational week by scoring a game-high 28 points as Youngstown State shot 63.3 percent from the field en route to an 80-63 victory over Loyola on Sunday afternoon at Gentile Arena.

With the win, Youngstown State (13-10, 8-5 Horizon), setting a new school mark for most conference wins since joining the Horizon League in 2001-02. Playing without Ben Averkamp for the second consecutive game, Loyola (5-18, 0-13 Horizon) dropped its 11^th straight contest.

Perry, who connected on 11-of-14 shooting from the floor, also dished out six assists and had seven steals. Perry is also the first YSU player to collect six-or-more steals in a game since Marlon Williams had six against UMKC on Dec. 21, 2002.

The Guins shot 60 percent in the first half and 65.5 percent in the second half. Their overall field-goal percentage of 63.3 percentage marks the first time since 2006 that the Guins shot above 60 percent in a game.

Blake Allen added 19 points, while Damian Eargle chipped in 12 and Ashed Ward 11.

The Guins led 37-30 at halftime but started the second half on a 9-0 in the first 1:48 to take a 46-30 advantage with 18:12 to go.

Perry opened the half with a steal and layup and after Allen drilled a 3-pointer to go up 12, he added another layup and a jumper to give the Guins a 16-point cushion.

Ward hit a 3-pointer to put the Guins up 20, 56-36, with 15:12 remaining and the Guins never led by less than 14 points the rest of the way. A Perry layup at the 3:31 mark put Guins up by a game-high 23, 78-55.

In the first half, the Guins only trailed twice, 10-9 at 14:52 and 12-11 at 13:19 before Perry scored seven straight points on jumper, two free throws and a 3-pointer to take an 18-12 edge with 11 minutes to go.

A Ward 3-pointer with 7:11 to go gave the Guins a 28-21 lead before the Ramblers used a 9-4 run to get within two, 32-30, at the 2:45 mark.

The Guins held the Ramblers scoreless the rest of the half and Perry's jumper with 11 seconds left put YSU up 37-30 at the half.

Loyola’s Walt Gibler provided the highlight for the Ramblers, leading the team with 18 points to eclipse the 1,000-point mark in his career; Gibler added five rebounds to get within nine boards of 500 for his career. With nine more boards, Gibler will become just the 18^th player in Loyola history with at least 1,000 points and 500 points for his career.

Jordan Hicks added a season-high 16 points, his most since November 20, 2010, and hauled in six rebounds. Joe Crisman chipped in nine points.