Three 20-Plus Wins for Men's Basketball Teams on Sunday

Men's Basketball Scoreboard (Dec. 7)
Cleveland State 76, Western Illinois 54
Wright State 81, Urbana 58
Youngstown State 70, Thiel 45
DePaul 83, Milwaukee 61

Cleveland State 76, Western Illinois 54
Cleveland State had 10 players score and forced 21 Western Illinois turnovers in cruising to a 76-54 victory in nonconference action in the Wolstein Center on Sunday afternoon.

The Vikings improved to 4-4 this year, while WIU fell to 2-5.

Trey Lewis led the Vikings with 21 points, four rebounds and three assists. Lewis, who scored 20 points for the seventh time in his career and the fourth time in the last five games, hit all four of his three-point attempts.

Anton Grady finished with 14 points and six rebounds, while Andre Yates added 11 points, four assists and four steals. He has multiple steals in seven of the eight games this year.

"I thought we came out with good intensity today and played Cleveland State basketball," CSU head coach Gary Waters said. "The intensity and level of defense we showed today is what we need to bring every game. We talked about forcing turnovers and getting easy baskets in transition and I thought we were able to do that today."

The Vikings also received 19 points from the bench, including seven from Kaza Keane and five from Derek Sloan.

"We talked about getting some bench production and they contributed today," Waters said. "Kaza came in and gave us a lift and Derek Sloan played very well."

Leading 14-13 seven minutes in, Lee hit a three-pointer to start a 12-0 run over the next four minutes that was capped by a Derek Sloan three-point play, giving CSU a 27-13 lead as the Vikings took control of the game.

The Vikings led at the half, 44-21, forcing 15 first half Leatherneck turnovers, which CSU turned into 22 points.

The 44 points were the most scored by the Vikings in a first half this year and the second most scored in any half in a game this season.

The Leathernecks hit three early three-pointers to start the second half and get within 17 points twice, the last time coming at 50-33 at the 16:38 mark.

However, back-to-back three's from Keane and Yates capped a 21-10 CSU spurt, giving the Vikings a 28 point advantage (71-43) with just over seven minutes left.

The Vikings shot .481 (25-52) for the game, including 9-of-16 (.563) from three-point. In addition, CSU went 17-of-21 (.810) at the free throw line, four days after taking just four free throws in a setback to Toledo.

WIU finished 21-of-45 (.467) from the field, but committed 21 turnovers that led to 34 CSU points.

Wright State 81, Urbana 58
Four Raiders scored in double figures as the Wright State men's basketball team rolled to an 81-58 win over Urbana Sunday night at WSU's Nutter Center.

A Justin Mitchell three-point play and a Joe Thomasson gave the Raiders a quick 5-0 lead and the margin eventually pushed into double figures as a Thomasson layup and a JT Yoho three made it 20-10 with 14:15 remaining in the first half.

Urbana answered with eight straight points before WSU again extended the lead back into double figures at 30-18 with a 10-0 burst, five of those coming from Mitchell.  The Raiders were up as much as 16 before going into halftime with a 42-30 lead.

WSU shot 44 percent in the opening 20 minutes and were nine of 10 at the foul line compared to 39 percent and three-for-five foul shooting for the Blue Knights.

Urbana would get no closer than eight in the second half as Wright State gradually built on its lead, with the largest being 79-53 with 3:10 left to play.

The Raiders shot 46 percent for the game and 24 of 30 at the free throw line while the Blue Knights shot 35 percent and were only seven of nine at the stripe.  WSU also led 32-16 in points in the paint and 20-2 in points off of turnovers as they forced 15 while committing just five.

Four Wright State players scored in double figures, led by Yoho's 23 as he collected seven rebounds.  Thomasson had 20 points along with eight assists and six rebounds while Mitchell had 16 points and eight boards and Grant Benzinger 11 points.

Youngstown State 70, Thiel 45
The Youngstown State men's basketball team won for the sixth time in seven games beating Thiel 70-45 on Sunday afternoon at the Beeghly Center. Marcus Keene scored 21 points to lead the Penguins' effort.

YSU opened up a 35-21 halftime lead before outscoring the Tomcats 35-23 in the second half. Keene had 11 in the first half and 10 in the second to pace the Penguins.

With the victory, the Penguins improve to 7-4 while Thiel falls to 3-5.

Playing their 11th game of the season, the Guins rested most of the starters the final 10 minutes of the contest. No player exceeded 28 minutes of action against the Tomcats.

Bobby Hain finished with 15 points, Sidney Umude came off the bench to score 10 while DJ Cole had nine for the Penguins.

Keene was 6-of-10 from the field, including 4-of-6 from beyond the 3-point arc and went 5-of-7 from the free-throw line. Hain was 4-of-7 from the field and 5-for-7 from the free-throw line.

A road-weary group shot 37.7 percent from the field making 20-of-53 attempts in the contest. However, the Guins made 24-of-35 shots from the free-throw line. Thiel was 18-of-58 from the field (31 percent) and missed 13 free throws.

YSU's biggest lead of the game was 58-30 which came at the 9:57 mark following an impressive dunk by Umude.

The game was knotted at 13 in the first half before a quick Guins flourish put them ahead 27-15. Hain started the run with a jumper before Keene followed with a 3-pointer and Cole capped the quick 7-0 run with a steal and layup conversion.

After Thiel broke up the run on a basket by Cetoute Clandell, YSU scored seven straight points again to build a 12-point lead. Following Clandell's basket, Cole knocked down a 3-pointer, made a pair of free throws and Amiker scored a bucket to put the Guins in front 27-15.

YSU's biggest lead of the first half was 16 points at 35-19 following a Keene basket. The Tomcats led by four on two occasions in the early going.

For the half, the Penguins shot 39.3 percent making 11-of-28 shots, including 4-of-7 from behind the arc. YSU was strong from the free-throw line making 9-of-12 attempts. Thiel shot 32.1 percent making 9-of-28 attempts. YSU had 21 rebounds to the Tomcats' 16 in the opening half.

DePaul 83, Milwaukee 61
Visiting University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's (4-5) second-half rally ultimately came up short in an 83-61 loss to DePaul (6-1) this afternoon at Allstate Arena. The loss snaps the Panthers' winning steak at two games.

"We are going to be a team that has its ups and down this year," Milwaukee Head Coach Rob Jeter said. "I was pleased with 11 assists and 11 turnovers because a lot of teams have come in here and thrown the ball away. DePaul's outside shooting and free throw shooting was the difference."

DePaul raced out of the starting gate, and the Panthers struggled to get into a flow, hitting just 5 of their first 21 shots as the host Blue Demons built a 23-10 lead. McWhorter scored nine points in the opening period and his three-pointer, Milwaukee's first of the game, at the 5:06 mark made it 28-17.

The Panthers connected on 5 of their last 10 shots from the field in the half but a bucket by Tommy Hamilton IV and a three by Forrest Robinson in the final minute sent the Blue Demons into the locker room on top, 38-24.

A three-pointer by Durrell McDonald put DePaul ahead by 19 (48-29), but the resilient Panthers used a 13-4 run that included five points from J.R. Lyle and four from Steve McWhorter, to get within 52-42 with 13:27 remaining in the game.

Four minutes later, another basket by Lyle brought Milwaukee within 59-50, the closest it had been since the 13:05 mark of the first half (11-4). But, DePaul responded with a 10-3 run that featured threes from Jamee Crockett and Myke Henry, to regain control of the contest.

McWhorter and Lyle finished with 13 points apiece to pace Milwaukee, which shot just 17 percent (4-for-23) from three-point range. Matt Tiby added eight points and pulled down 10 boards.