Seeds Begin to Sort Out on Saturday

#HLMBB Scoreboard (Feb. 15)
Green Bay 68, Cleveland State 54
Youngstown State 59, UIC 56
Valparaiso 77, Milwaukee 62

On a busy Saturday in the Horizon League, the seeds for the men's basketball tournament began to take shape as Green Bay, Valparaiso and Youngstown State all collected wins.

Green Bay stands one victory from claiming at least a share of the regular season championship and the No. 1 seed for the conference tournament.

Green Bay 68, Cleveland State 54
Visiting Green Bay jumped out to 16-2 lead and held a 20-point lead 12 minutes into Saturday’s game at Cleveland State, and the Phoenix got 18 points each from Alec Brown and Keifer Sykes en route to a 68-54 win at the Wolstein Center.

With the victory, Green Bay (21-5, 11-2 Horizon) ended the Vikings’ seven-game winning streak and extended its lead in the Horizon League standings to two games over Cleveland State (18-10, 9-4 Horizon) and Valparaiso. The Phoenix hosts Valpo on Thursday night at the Resch Center.

Brown scored 42 points this weekend as the Phoenix swept its Ohio road trip against Youngstown State (71-40) and Cleveland State for the second-straight season. Green Bay has won eight of its last nine Horizon League road games, including a 5-1 record this season.

On Saturday, Brown set the tone for the Phoenix, scoring nine points during the 16-2 spurt to start the game. Green Bay extended its lead to 20 points (27-7) eight minutes into the game, took a 32-19 lead into the halftime, and led by as many as 23 points in the second half.

Cleveland State entered Saturday’s game as the nation’s top three-point shooting team but made just 5-of-23 shots from long range against Green Bay. Meanwhile, Brown made 3-of-4 triples and the Phoenix ended the game 6-of-11 from beyond the arc.

Getting six points from Greg Mays, Green Bay opened the second half on a 10-2 run to extend its lead to 42-22. The Phoenix lead was 57-36 with 7:36 to play before Cleveland State scored 12 points to make things interesting. Green Bay scored the next seven points to put the game away.

Sykes scored 18 points on 3-of-8 shooting from the field and 11-of-14 from the free-throw line. With 161 free throws made in 2013-14, Sykes broke his own single-season program record. Mays finished with 15 points on 7-of-8 shooting from the field.

The nation’s second-leading shot blocking team had 10 blocks on Saturday, extending its Horizon League record to 195. Freshman Kenneth Lowe  had a career-high four blocks while Jordan Fouse blocked three shots and grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds.

Youngstown State 59, UIC 56
Kendrick Perry scored 23 of his game-high 31 points in the second half, and Youngstown State grinded out a 59-56 win over UIC at Beeghly Center. Perry also set the Horizon League all-time steals record with 238.

Perry was 3-for-4 from 3-point range and 10-for-11 from the free-throw line in the final 20 minutes as the Penguins rallied from an 11-point first-half deficit. Bobby Hain added 14 points and a career-high 17 rebounds for YSU, which snapped a four-game losing streak. The Penguins are now 14-13 overall and 5-7 in Horizon League play while the Flames drop to 5-21 and 0-12.

The Flames led by 11 after 13 minutes, and they held an eight-point advantage at halftime. The Penguins started the second half by outscoring UIC 12-4 over the first 4:15 to tie the score at 31. YSU also tied the score at 35 and 37 before UIC scored the next six points to go up 46-40. Perry hit a 3-pointer on YSU's next possession, and he cut the deficit to one with 6:23 remaining on an alley-oop from D.J. Cole's pass near half court.

The Penguins took their first lead of the game at the 4:02 mark when Perry's third 3-pointer of the half made the score 50-48, but UIC's Pat Birt answered with a triple on the next possession to put the Flames back on top by one. The Flames didn't score again until Kelsey Barlow's bucket with 20 seconds left, and they had one possession that lasted for more than a minute with three offensive rebounds.

D.J. Cole scored for YSU on its next trip to put the Penguins up 52-51, and they did not trail again. Perry made two free throws at the 2:44 mark to push the lead to three, and the senior made two more with 25 seconds left to make the advantage 56-51.

After Barlow's jumper made the score 56-53, Shawn Amiker split a pair of free throws to put YSU up four. Barlow then hit a 3-pointer with just over a second left to make it a one-point game, and Perry's two free throws with 0.7 seconds put the Penguins back up by three. Barlow didn't get a tying attempt from 25 feet off before the buzzer sounded, and it ended up missing anyhow.

Perry finished the game going 8-for-19 from the field and 12-for-15 from the free-throw line. The record-breaking steal was his only one of the game, and it pushed his career total to 238. He scored at least 30 points for the sixth time this season and for the ninth time in his career.

Youngstown State's starters combined to play 192 of a possible 200 minutes.

Barlow had 17 points, and Birt finished with 15 for the Flames. Jordan Harks added 15 rebounds.

UIC led by as many as 11 in the first half and held a 27-19 edge at the break. The Penguins started 1-for-13 from the field as the Flames scored nine of the first 11 points of the game, and YSU ended up shooting 21.4 percent in the half. YSU scored the next eight points and got within one on Perry's lay-up, but UIC countered with the next seven points to go up 16-8 with 10:49 left in the period.

Another Perry bucket cut the deficit to 16-12, and UIC's second 7-0 run of the half gave it its largest lead of the game at 23-12 with 7:21 remaining. Perry's record-breaking steal came with just under five minutes remaining in the first half, and it got YSU back within seven. The lead bounced between eight and 10 the rest of the half.

Hain nearly had a double-double in the first half with eight points and nine rebounds.

Valparaiso 77, Milwaukee 62
Valparaiso led for the final 36 minutes of Saturday night’s contest at Milwaukee, pulling away down the stretch for a 77-62 victory over the Panthers. The win keeps the Crusaders in a tie for second place in the league standings and puts Valpo two games ahead of fourth place.

Three straight baskets early on from freshmen Jubril Adekoya and Lexus Williams and junior Vashil Fernandez gave Valpo the lead for good, combining for a 7-0 run which made it 7-4 Crusaders 4:18 into the game. After a pair of Milwaukee free throws, both sides would go scoreless for nearly five minutes as Valpo clung to a one-point lead.

Keith Carter broke the scoreless skid with a triple with 10:43 to play in the first half, and freshman Clay Yeo followed with a 3-pointer of his own on Valpo’s next trip. Carter then connected on his second 3-pointer of the first half, and Jordan Coleman got a putback basket on the next possession to cap a quick 11-2 Crusader spurt as the lead hit 18-8 with 8:59 left in the first half.

The lead would reach as many as 11 points in the opening period, following a 3-pointer by Coleman which made it 32-21 Crusaders with 2:07 to play in the opening period. Milwaukee would score the next five points to cut the lead to six, but a layup from Bobby Capobianco inside the final minute gave Valpo a 34-26 halftime advantage into the locker room.

Milwaukee would cut the Crusader edge to four points a number of times early in the second half, but each time, Valpo players made plays to hold off the Panthers. Lavonte Dority twice converted at the rim, including an old-fashioned 3-point play, while freshman Alec Peters scored inside on a set play during the opening stretch as well.

The Panthers got as close as they had been since the opening minutes on a Malcolm Moore 3-pointer with 12:52 remaining, as Valpo’s lead was cut to 45-43. But the Crusaders responded by not surrendering another point over the next 3:20, going on an 8-0 run over that stretch to push the lead back to 10 points. Carter hit a pair of free throws to open the run and also came up with a steal which led to a fast-break dunk for Coleman, one of two baskets for the senior during the run, while Dority also scored as Valpo pushed the lead back to 53-43 with 9:56 to play.

The Crusaders were faced with extreme foul trouble inside though, as Fernandez, Capobianco and Moussa Gueye all fouled out, the last coming with 9:05 to play and Valpo leading 53-46. Running a small lineup out there with Adekoya playing the five, the Crusaders maintained their lead, pushing it up to as many as 11 points before a 6-1 spurt from the Panthers cut the advantage to 61-55 with 4:51 to go.

On each of their next three possessions, though, the Crusaders would run 30 or more seconds off the clock and find the basket. First it was Peters grabbing a miss and laying it back up and in through traffic. After Milwaukee split a pair of free throws, Dority drove all the way to the rim late in the shot clock and finished. On the next trip, it was again Dority with the big play, this time a stepback jumper from the free throw line which made it 67-56 Crusaders with 2:43 to go. Valpo hit all eight of its free throws from that point on to secure the win.

Dority paced the Crusaders in the winning effort, scoring 19 points, 13 of which came in the second half. Coleman registered his first double-double in a Valpo uniform, hitting all five of his shots from the field in a 14-point effort and pulling down a career-high 11 rebounds. Four other Crusaders tallied at least eight points in the balanced offensive effort as well. Valpo shot 51 percent (25-of-49) from the floor and 81.5 percent (22-of-27) from the foul line for the game.

Kyle Kelm led Milwaukee (16-10, 6-6 Horizon) with 24 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the floor and 8-of-10 from the foul line, while Matt Tiby added 14 points, including 10 free throws. The Crusaders limited the Panthers to just 31.7 percent (19-of-60) shooting from the field, while Milwaukee was just 3-of-29 from 3-point range. Valpo blocked six Panther shots, including four rejections from Gueye in just 12 minutes of action.