Three Wins on Saturday for #HLMBB

Men's Basketball Scoreboard (Nov. 22)
Detroit 66, South Alabama 53
Wright State 86, Charleston Southern 79
Youngstown State 82, Longwood 72
Kent State 78, UIC 60
Savannah State 87, Cleveland State 83 (OT)

Detroit 66, South Alabama 53
Senior Juwan Howard Jr. scored a game-high 22 points as the University of Detroit Mercy men's basketball team improved to 2-0 at home with a 66-53 victory over South Alabama on Saturday at historic Calihan Hall.

Howard reached the 20-point plateau for the second straight game, going 14-of-14 from the free throw line. As a team, Detroit was 20-of-23 from the charity stripe, while South Alabama made 12-of-23.

Anton Wilson added 11 points, Matthew Grant scored nine points and added five assists, while Paris Bass had eight points, four rebounds and three blocked shots off the bench for the Titans.

The Titans (2-2) were playing their third game in five days and it showed in the opening minutes as South Alabama (1-2) held a 3-2 lead during the first media timeout. The Titans then started to find the basket as an 8-1 run capped off by a long jumper from Jarod Williams gave Detroit a 10-4 lead with 1:45 left. The Jags would trim the lead to 10-7 with 10:23 remaining, but that was as close as the score would get as Detroit put the game away with a 21-13 run to take a 31-20 lead into the locker room. Howard led Detroit with eight points in the first half, while Grant had seven.

The Titans run then continued in the second half as Detroit stretched its lead to 19 after back-to-back three-pointers from Wilson and Bass gave to build a 50-31 lead with 12:59 left. A late run from South Alabama would trim the lead to 58-51 with 2:03 left, before the Titans closed the game with an 8-2 run to secure the win.

Detroit shot 34.4 percent (21-of-61) from the floor, compared to a 32.7 percent shooting clip for South Alabama. The Titans forced the Jaguars into 22 turnovers with 11 steals and seven blocked shots.

Wright State 86, Charleston Southern 79
Behind a career-high 25 points from JT Yoho and four others in double figures, the Wright State men's basketball team shot 58 percent in winning 86-79 at Charleston Southern Saturday night.

The Raiders hit their first six shots, including a pair of threes from Reggie Arceneaux, to jump out to a 14-5 lead just 3:13 into the contest.  The Buccaneers cut the deficit to two on two occasions, only to see WSU push the margin back into double figures at 33-20 at the 5:19 mark on another Arceneaux three.

Charleston Southern stormed back to within four late in the half, but a desperation three at the buzzer by Yoho gave Wright State a 42-35 halftime advantage.

WSU hit 17 of 31 shots in the opening 20 minutes for 55 percent, including six of 11 from three-point range, while the Buccaneers shot 36 percent overall and were just three of 15 from behind the arc.  Charleston Southern, though, had a 10-3 edge in offensive rebounds, which resulted in a 13-2 differential in second-chance points.

A Grant Benzinger three gave the Raiders their biggest lead of the night at 59-45 with 13:05 to play, but again CSU would make a comeback, trimming the deficit to 66-63 at the nine-minute mark.

Yoho, however, followed with five straight points and the lead eventually grew back in double figures at 80-69 on two free throws by Joe Thomasson with 2:11 left.

WSU continued its hot shooting in the second half, scorching the nets for 62 percent the final 20 minutes to finish at 58 percent overall, including 10 of 19 from behind the arc.  The Raiders also made 16 of 19 foul shots and had a 16-8 edge in points off of turnovers.

Charleston Southern (2-1), meanwhile, shot 42 percent for the game and dominated second-chance points by a 26-2 count.

Yoho, in his first action of the season, came off the bench to score a career-high 25 points, besting the 20 he scored on January 30, 2014, at Milwaukee and against Evansville on February 23, 2013.  He was 10 of 17 from the field, including three of five three-pointers, and also had seven rebounds.

Thomasson added a near double-double of 16 points and nine rebounds along with five assists and three blocks, while Chrishawn Hopkins had 14 points, Arceneaux 11 and Steven Davis 10.

Youngstown State 82, Longwood 72
All five starters scored in double figures and the Youngstown State men's basketball team shot 52.6 percent from the field en route to an 82-72 win over Longwood on Saturday evening at the EMU Convocation Center.

Seniors Shawn Amiker and DJ Cole led the Penguins (2-3) with 18 points each while junior Bobby Hain posted a double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds. Cole also posted a double-double and tied a career high with 12 assists.

Sophomore Jalon Plummer tied a career high with 13 points and sophomore Marcus Keene added 11 points.

The Penguins were efficient from the field in both halves, shooting 50 percent (15-of-30) in the first half and 55.6 percent (15-of-27) in the second.

Youngstown State also won the rebounding battle, 39-26.

Longwood (2-2) was led by Lotanna Nwogbo and Shaquille Johnson, who each scored 16 points. Taylor Quincy had 14 points and Kanayo Obi-Rapu added 11.

Longwood cut a seven-point halftime deficit down to two, 44-42, by outscoring the Penguins, 9-4, in the first four minutes of the second half.

After a Nwogbo dunk kept the deficit at two, 46-44, the Penguins rattled off 13 straight points to take a 15-point lead, 59-44, with 11:34 left. A jumper by Keene started the surge which was followed by a jumper by Fletcher Larson, three straight baskets by Amiker, a free throw by Cole and another jumper by Amiker, who scored 16 points in the second half.

Over the next six minutes, Longwood chipped the deficit down to four, 70-66, with 5:28 left.

But a tip-in by Hain, a jumper by Keene and another Hain tip-in pushed the Youngstown State lead back to 10, 76-66, with 3:37 to go.

Longwood got back within six, 76-70, with 2:45 remaining, but the Penguins made six straight free throws with less than 35 seconds left to seal the victory.

Trailing by five, 30-25, with 5:29 left before halftime, the Penguins closed out the half on a 15-3 scoring run to take a 40-33 lead at the intermission. Plummer hit a 3-pointer and a layup to tie the game at 30-30 and ignite the Penguins surge.

A pair of free throws by Plummer, jumpers from Hain and Cole, two free throws from Cole and a jumper by Fletcher Larson gave the Penguins a nine-point edge, 40-31, with just over a minute to play.

Longwood's Darrion Allen may a layup with a minute left to end the first half scoring.

Kent State 78, UIC 60
The UIC men’s basketball team (1-3) dropped game No. 2 of the Men Against Breast Cancer Classic versus host Kent State (4-0) on Saturday night by a final of 78-60. Junior Jake Wiegand was the lone bright spot for the Flames as he recorded a game-high 26 points and grabbed nine rebounds.  Wiegand also sank a career-high 11 field goals on 15 attempts.

The Golden Flashes were red hot from three-point range as they shot 11-of-22, including 8-of-12 from Devareaux Manley and Derek Jackson. Jackson paced Kent State with 17 points and was joined in double figures by Manley (15), Kris Brewer (14) and Jimmy Hall (10).

Wiegand’s 26-point effort gives him 78 through four games this season, which is the most by a UIC player since Josh Mayo in the 2007-08 campaign. The 6-foot-8 power forward is shooting nearly 55 percent (28-of-51) from the field and more than 86 percent (19-of-22) from the foul line this season.

Fifth-year transfer Jay Harris made his Flames’ debut tonight and netted 14 points, including 7-of-8 from the charity stripe. Redshirt freshman Lance Whitaker also made his first appearance for UIC this season, the first game action for Whitaker since Nov. 16, 2013.

Kent State used a 14-2 run near the end of the first half to go up 37-19 and held on to its double-digit lead for the remainder of the night. The Flames tied KSU in the second half (31-31), but a 47-29 halftime advantage by the Golden Flashes was too much for UIC to overcome.

Savannah State 87, Cleveland State 83 (OT)
Cleveland State had four players in double figures, but a late three-pointer from Savannah State sent the game into overtime where the Tigers claimed an 87-83 victory on Saturday afternoon at Tiger arena.

CSU slipped to 2-2 this year, while the Tigers improved to 2-2.

Trey Lewis led CSU with 27 points, six steals and four assists, while Marlin Mason scored 16 points. Andre Yates finished with 15 points and four rebounds and Anton Grady added 13 points and seven rebounds.

SSU's Javaris Jenkins led all scorers with 33 points, including 6-of-7 from three-point.

Both teams used hot shooting in a high scoring first half with SSU taking a 42-40 lead into the locker room. The Tigers his .632 (12-19) from the field and 14-of-17 (.824) at the line over the first 20 minutes, but could not pull away from the Vikings, who shot .542 (13-24) in the first half.

The first 20 minutes featured 17 lead changes and eight ties, the final one coming on Yates' first free throw with 35 seconds left. After hitting the second to give the Vikings a 40-39 lead, Javaris Jenkins nailed a three-pointer with one second left in the half, giving the Tigers a 42-40 lead at intermission.

However, the Vikings would use eight points from Mason to key a 20-5 run to open the second half and take a 60-47 lead on Yates' driving layup six minutes into the half. CSU scored the first 11 points of the half as part of the run.

The Tigers would slice the lead back under single digits (60-51) with 12 minutes left and cut the CSU lead down to six (60-54), but back-to-back buckets from Grady helped the Vikings regain a 10 point lead (64-54) midway through the second half.

The Tigers would not go away, scoring the next six points to pull within four, but a Grady alley-oop dunk pushed CSU's lead back to six (66-60). However, he was called for a technical foul for slapping the backboard and SSU's two free throws, plus another on the ensuing possession, brought the Tigers back within three (66-60).

Yates came up with a steal and after losing control of the ball at midcourt, tipped it forward to Mason who converted a three-point play to push the CSU lead back to six (69-63). SSU would not go away as Javaris Jenkins hit a three from the wing to keep it a one possession game with four minutes to play.

It remained a three-point CSU lead until Lewis hit a running left-hander on the wing with just under three minutes left, pushing CSU's lead back to five points (73-68). The teams continued to trade baskets and free throws under a three-pointer by SSU's Jenkins cut CSU's lead to two (78-76) with 10.3 seconds left.

After Grady hit one of two free throws, Jenkins nailed another three-pointer with 1.7 seconds to play to send the game into overtime.

CSU shot .500 (27-54) from the field, while the Tigers were 24-of-46 (.522).

In overtime, the Tigers broke an 83-83 all tie, hitting 4-of-6 free throws under a minute to claim the win.