Unbeaten Tuesday Night in Men's Basketball

Men's Basketball Scoreboard (Nov. 25)
Detroit 82, Toledo 79
Green Bay 64, Evansville 62
Oakland 70, Chicago State 57
UIC 87, Saint Xavier 76

Detroit 82, Toledo 79
Senior forward Juwan Howard Jr. was named the Progressive Legends Classic Sub-Regional MVP after scoring a game-high 28 points to help lead the University of Detroit Mercy men's basketball team to an 82-79 win over Toledo in the championship game on Tuesday at Savage Arena. The win also snapped the Rockets' 18-game home winning streak that dated back to Jan. 18, 2012.

Detroit (4-2) trailed by five points, 71-66, with 3:31 left in regulation, before closing out the game with a 16-8 run, including a three-pointer from senior guard Brandan Kearney with 49 seconds left to give the Titans a 78-75 lead. Detroit then made four-straight free throws down the stretch to secure the win.

Howard finished with 28 points – 17 in the second half – to lead Detroit, while Horizon League Freshman of the Week Paris Bass recorded his first collegiate double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Bass also had four assists, one steal and one blocked shot and was named to the All-Tournament team.

Sophomore Jarod Williams scored 13 points to go along with three steals and three assists, while junior Anton Wilson added 10 points – eight in the second half – to go with two steals.

Detroit shot 52.6 percent (30-of-57) overall, 41.3 percent (7-of-17) from downtown, while dishing out a season-high 16 assists and recording 10 steals.

Green Bay 64, Evansville 62
Using dominant defensive in the first half and clutch plays down the stretch, Green Bay (3-1) posted a gutsy 64-62 victory over previously undefeated Evansville (3-1) on Tuesday night in the semifinals of the 2014 Gulf Coast Showcase at Germain Arena.

The Phoenix advances to Wednesday night’s championship game, where it will meet Florida Gulf Coast.

Senior Keifer Sykes (Chicago, Ill.) scored 20 points on 9-of-17 shooting to lead all scorers, and added eight rebounds, three assists and two steals. Led by Sykes and seven total team dunks, Green Bay shot 50 percent from the field (24-48) and 62 percent inside the three-point arc (21-34).

The Phoenix used a 10-0 run midway through the first half to turn a 12-6 deficit into a 16-12 lead. With Sykes scoring nine points, Green Bay held a 26-23 lead at intermission with Evansville shooting only 28 percent.

In the second half, Green Bay led by as many as eight points early on, but the two teams spent the final 16:47 of the night with neither team leading by more than four points.

Evansville took a 55-54 lead with 5:26 to play, but Sykes answered moments later with a three-point play to put the Phoenix in front to stay. After a defensive stop on the other end, Sykes knocked down another jumper and Green Bay led 59-55 with 4:15 remaining.

Sykes hammered home his third dunk in transition with 2:12 to play and Green Bay led 63-59, but D.J. Balentine barely beat the shot clock on the next play with a long triple to cut the mark to 63-62.

After empty possessions by both teams, junior Carrington Love (Milwaukee, Wis.) split a pair of free throws. Love and senior Greg Mays (Chicago, Ill.) finished with 11 points to give the Phoenix three in double figures.

Evansville had two shots in the final 16 seconds, but neither went through the net and the Phoenix earned the victory.

Oakland 70, Chicago State 57
Corey Petros scored 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting Tuesday night to help lift Oakland to its first win of the season with a 70-57 victory over Chicago State in the CBE Hall of Fame Classic.

Oakland (1-4) took control with a 9-0 burst midway through the first period sparked by a 3-pointer from Max Hooper to take a 37-28 advantage into the break and held on to the lead the rest of the game.

Dante Williams contributed 13 points, Tommie McCune had 12 and 10 rebounds and Kahlil Felder had 10 points and seven assists in the win. Both teams shot comparably from the floor but Oakland sank almost twice as many from the free throw line (17 of 28).

Chicago State (2-4) tied the game at 28-all on an Anthony Glover trey in the first half but quickly fell behind. Clarke Rosenberg led the Cougars with 15 points.

UIC 87, Saint Xavier 76
The UIC men’s basketball team (2-4) improved to 2-0 at home this season with a convincing 87-76 win on Tuesday night against Saint Xavier (3-3) at the UIC Pavilion. The Flames never trailed in the contest as junior Jake Wiegand paced UIC with game-highs of 20 points and 12 rebounds. Fifth-year transfer Jay Harris chipped in 16 points, while freshman Tai Odiase recorded his first collegiate double-double with 11 points and 10 boards.

“I am always happy to get a win at home, but we are still a work in progress,” said head coach Howard Moore. “I thought Jake and Tai played great tonight. As a coach you love to see two double-doubles from your big men. Our guards need to defend a little better on the perimeter and exercise more poise down the stretch.”

Wiegand notched his third 20-point effort of the season and third double-digit rebounding performance. The junior is now averaging a team-best 17.3 points and 8.6 rebounds per game.

Odiase added four blocks to his stat line which inflates his season total to 14, the highest six-game total to start the year for a UIC player since Scott VanderMeer in 2008-09.  Odiase’s 11 points, 10 rebounds and four field goals are new career-bests.

Harris racked up his third straight double-digit scoring performance as a member of the Flames and his seventh straight overall counting his final four games at Wagner.  Harris shot 4-of-6 from three-point range to lead UIC from downtown and dished out a team-best three assists.

Junior Gabe Snider was also lethal from the outside as he went 3-of-6 from behind the arc.  Snider sank all three triples in the first half, improving his career three-point shooting percentage to 39 percent.

The Flames received scoring from nine separate players tonight as all five tallied five points or more. UIC shot a season-high 42.9 percent from three-point land, including 7-of-13 (53.8%) in the first half. Eighty seven points serves as UIC’s highest-scoring output since Dec. 17, 2013.

Redshirt freshman Lance Whitaker tallied a career-high with seven points in just his sixth collegiate game, while sophomore Markese McGuire was one shy of his career-best with eight points.

Junior D'Juan Miller grabbed a season-high five rebounds and chipped in six points, including a buzzer-beating trey to close out the half.

The Flames grabbed a season-high 18 offensive rebounds to score 27 second-chance points.  Odiase led the way with seven offensive boards, while Wiegand added five.