Men’s Basketball Scoreboard (Dec. 5)
Detroit 79, Toledo 73
UIC 81, Roosevelt 43
Valparaiso 63, IPFW 52
Buffalo 72, Milwaukee 52
Detroit and Valparaiso rebounded from road losses with home wins, while UIC routed Roosevelt to set up a marquee matchup with Colorado State on Saturday.
Detroit 79, Toledo 73
With Ray McCallum struggling from the floor, Jason Calliste and Juwan Howard, Jr. carried Detroit past visiting Toledo, 79-73, at Calihan Hall on Star Wars Night.
Detroit (3-4) snapped a two-game losing streak behind Calliste’s 24 points and Howard’s 16.
The Titans used a 20-5 run, including three monster dunks from Doug Anderson, to break open a 54-54 tie with 10:24 remaining to extend their home winning streak to 11 straight.
Anderson finished with 10 points, five rebounds, and two blocked shots, as McCallum handed out 10 assists to go along with eight rebounds as he finished with a season-low seven points. Anton Wilson recorded a career-high nine points, adding three assists and two steals.
Toledo took an early 8-0 lead before the Titans responded with a 19-9 run, including 11-straight points from Howard, to take a 19-17 lead with lead 10:49 left. Howard made his first three shots, including back-to-back three pointers, to spark the Titans who missed their first 10 attempts from the field.
Both teams then exchanged baskets to close the first half as the Titans took a 38-36 lead into the locker room. Howard led Detroit with 14 points on 4-for-6 shooting from downtown, while Calliste pitched in 11 points and McCallum had five assists.
Toledo opened the second half with an 18-10 run to take the lead, 54-48, with 11:16 remaining. But back-to-back three-pointers from Wilson, followed by a lay-up from Anderson gave the Titans a 56-54 lead that they would not relinquish.
After a free throw from Julius Brown made the score 56-55 with 9:02 remaining, the Titans went on an 18-4 run over the next five minutes to build their largest lead of the game 74-59. The Rockets trimmed the lead to 78-70 with a minute left, but that was as close as it would get until Rian Pearson drained a three-pointer at the buzzer to make the final 79-73.
Toledo outrebounded Detroit, 37-35, but the Titans forced 18 turnovers, while dishing out 19 assists. The Titans bench also outscored the Rockets bench 20-9. Toledo shot 45.6 percent for the game, while Detroit shot 42.6 percent overall, including 42.9 from downtown.
UIC 81, Roosevelt 43
Returning to the friendly confines of the UIC Pavilion, UIC cruised past visiting Roosevelt, 81-43.
UIC (7-1) set up a key game against visiting Colorado State on Saturday at the Pavilion.
Keyed all season by its defense, the Flames had no let up against Roosevelt, holding the Lakers to just 18-for-61 shooting and forcing 16 turnovers on the night. Meanwhile, UIC had 22 assists on its 29 field goals.
Hayden Humes led the Flames with 21 points, going 8-of-9 from the field, including a 5-for-6 mark from three-point range.
Daniel Barnes and Gary Talton each chipped in 11 points, and sophomore forward Ahman Fells posted his first-career double-digit scoring output with 10 points.
The Flames never trailed after Barnes’ free throw gave UIC a 3-2 lead early in the contest. UIC led by as many as 40 points in the second half, as no player saw more than 27 minutes on the court.
Of the 13 UIC players to see the court, 11 scored.
Valparaiso 63, IPFW 52
Taking a 35-32 lead into the half, Valparaiso clamped down defensively in the second half, limiting IPFW to just four second-half field goals as the Crusaders took a 63-52 win over the Mastodons at the Athletics-Recreation Center.
Valparaiso (6-2) was just 20-of-49 from the field for the game and 5-of-17 from three-point range, but Ryan Broekhoff carried the Crusaders with 21 points and nine rebounds. Broekhoff was 7-of-13 and 4-of-8 from three-point range.
Broekhoff’s 0.476 efficiency-per-possession rating easily paced all players in the game, while Kevin Van Wijk turned in a 0.392 rating with a 12-point, six-rebound effort on 4-of-7 shooting.
After IPFW went 5-of-9 from three-point range in the first half, Valparaiso held the Mastodons without a three in the game’s final 20 minutes as IPFW shot 20-percent from the floor.
IPFW’s leading scorer, Frank Gaines, was limited to 19 points on 5-of-14 shooting.
Leading 43-41 halfway through the second half, Valparaiso took control behind Van Wijk and Broekhoff, who combined for eight of the Crusaders’ 10 points during the game-deciding 10-0 run.
Broekhoff’s biggest play came on the Crusaders’ next possession. Following an IPFW miss, Broekhoff grabbed the defensive board and triggered the fast break. Valpo got an open look from behind the 3-point line which was off the mark, but Broekhoff came streaking in from the top of the key, secured the rebound while off-balance and, falling out of bounds, delivered a strike to Bobby Capobianco for a wide-open layup.
The basket capped the 10-0 spurt, putting Valpo ahead 53-41 with just over six minutes remaining, and IPFW would get no closer than nine points the rest of the way.
Buffalo 72, Milwaukee 52
Outrebounded and outshot, Milwaukee dropped its fifth straight game, 72-52, to visiting Buffalo at the Klotsche Center.
Milwaukee (2-6) entered the game having won 21 of its last 22 games at the Klotsche Center, including both regular season contests this year; however, the Panthers allowed Buffalo to shoot 56 percent from the field as both Javon McCrea and Auraum Nuiriankh posted double-doubles.
McCrea had 31 points and 11 rebounds, dominating the low block to the tune of 15-of-19 shooting from the field. McCrea helped Buffalo outscore Milwaukee, 58-22, in the paint.
Jordan Aaron led Milwaukee with 23 points, while Paris Gulley added 16 points. The two combined to go 14-for-33 from the field, while the rest of the Panthers were 6-of-25.
The Panthers shot just 21.2 percent in the first half, falling behind, 36-21, at the half.
