Undefeated Sunday in Men's Basketball

Men's Basketball Scoreboard (Dec. 21)
Cleveland State 69, San Francisco 65 (OT)
Green Bay 66, Arkansas-Little Rock 46
Valparaiso 82, Goshen 55

Cleveland State 69, San Francisco 65 (OT)
Anton Grady scored 17 points to lead a balanced Cleveland State scoring attack as the Vikings knocked off San Francisco, 69-65, in overtime on Sunday afternoon at the Wolstein Center.

Both teams are now 6-6 this season.

Grady – who scored 13 of his points in the second half and overtime – finished 8-of-15 from the floor and added seven rebounds, three blocks and three steals. Charlie Lee added 15 points and three assists, while Andre Yates finished with 13 points.

Kaza Keane and Vinny Zollo gave CSU a spark off the bench with Keane totaling nine points, three rebounds, a steal and an assist. Zollo tallied five points, seven rebounds and three assists.

Mark Tollefsen led the Dons with 17 points.

The Dons used a 9-3 spurt to turn a five point lead (16-11) into their largest lead of the opening stanza (25-14) on a Tollefson three-pointer with 5:37 to play. However, the Vikings used three-pointers from Lee and Lewis and layups by Grady and Keane to pull within 30-26 at halftime.

The Vikings took their first lead of the contest with 7:42 to play on a Grady dunk off an assist from Zollo. The game was tied four times from there, the final time coming when USF's Tim Derksen answered a Lee three-pointer with 49 seconds left that tied the game at 62-62.

After a CSU miss, the Dons had a chance to win the game, but Derksen's jumper was short and a tip was off the mark, sending the Vikings into overtime for the second time this season.

In the extra session, CSU outscored the Dons, 7-3, limiting USF to just three free throws and 0-of-3 from the field.

CSU shot .472 (25-53) from the field, including 9-of-19 (.474) from three-point. USF was 22-of-48 (.458) from the field and held a slim 30-29 advantage on the glass.

Green Bay 66, Arkansas-Little Rock 46
With UALR’s defense focusing on Keifer Sykes (Chicago, Ill.) and two Phoenix big men in foul trouble, Green Bay (9-2) looked for offense from a trio of other players. Senior Alffonzo McKinnie (Chicago, Ill.) and juniors Jordan Fouse (Racine, Wis.) and Carrington Love (Milwaukee, Wis.) responded in a big way, combining for 46 points as Green Bay defeated UALR 66-46 on Sunday afternoon in the opener of the Las Vegas Holiday Hoops Classic.

McKinnie had a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds in 33 minutes. The 6-foot-8 senior transfer, playing his 20th game in a Phoenix uniform, made 7-of-9 shots from the field and both of his three-pointers. Fouse tied his career high with 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds, and Love reached double figures for the fourth-straight game with 13 points and five assists.

With the victory, Green Bay moves to the tournament championship game against UC-Irvine, who rallied from a 27-11 deficit to defeat Bradley 55-47. The championship game is set for Monday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. CST.

Green Bay started quickly in both halves, including jumping out to a 6-0 lead to start the game. The Phoenix lead grew to 16-9 on a dunk from McKinnie with 11:43 to play before halftime.

UALR, picked to finish third in the Sun Belt Conference and averaging 73-plus points per game entering the contest, rallied and took a 25-24 lead with 5:48 on the clock. Love made a three, McKinnie hit a jumper and Fouse scored the final four points as Green Bay led 33-29 at the break.

Playing against a box-and-one defense, Sykes took just one shot in the first half but tallied five assists and five rebounds as the Phoenix shot 56.0 percent in the half (14-25).

McKinnie started the second half with the first four points and also hit a three-pointer during a 15-2 run that extended the Phoenix lead to 48-31 with 13:01 remaining.

UALR closed the margin to nine points with 7:36 on the clock, but the Phoenix defense clamped down and held the Trojans to only two points the rest of the way. Sykes scored all five of his points down the stretch as Green Bay closed the game on a 13-2 run.

Green Bay’s senior All-American candidate finished with five points, eight rebounds, six assists and three steals. He saw his streak of 29-straight games in double figures come to an end. The last time he did not reach double digits was ironically on Dec. 21, 2013, exactly a year ago today.

Valparaiso 82, Goshen 55
Less than 24 hours after tallying six blocks in the Crusaders’ win at IPFW, senior Vashil Fernandez (Kingston, Jamaica/Princeton Day [Md.] Academy) set a new program single-game record with eight blocked shots as Valparaiso rolled to a 82-55 victory over Goshen Sunday afternoon at the ARC.  The Crusaders improved to 12-2 on the season with the win.

Fernandez blocked three shots in the first half and then blocked two shots within the first four minutes of the second half.  Still stuck at five blocks as the clock approached six minutes to play, the senior made one final push, blocking shots on three out of the next five Goshen trips to set a new Crusader single-game mark with eight rejections.  Fernandez broke the previous record of seven blocks in a game, accomplished three times, including once himself last season.  Of the top-nine single-game blocked shot efforts in Valpo history, Fernandez owns four of them, three of which have come in the last ten games.

Offensively, it was once again sophomore Alec Peters (Washington, Ill./Washington) standing out for the Crusaders.  But this time, it was the opposite of Peters’ performance on Saturday, as after being held scoreless in nine foul-plagued first-half minutes at IPFW, the sophomore poured in 13 points inside the game’s first five minutes against Goshen.  Peters would not score the remainder of the half, but came out of the locker room strong, scoring eight points in the first three-plus minutes of the second half.  Peters ended the night with 29 points on 10-of-17 shooting, including four 3-pointers, in just 21 minutes of action.

Peters led the way as the Crusaders ran out to a superb start, leading 17-0 4:46 into the ballgame.  Fernandez flushed home a dunk on the first possession of the game, and junior Darien Walker (Chicago, Ill./Simeon [John A. Logan/Arizona Western]) added a putback before Peters’ run of 13 consecutive points.  Goshen finally got on the board courtesy of a 3-pointer from Billy Geschke six minutes into the contest.

The Crusaders extended their lead to 20 points less than eight minutes into the game, as senior David Chadwick (Charlotte, N.C./Hargrave Military Academy [Rice]) finished a fast break with a layup.  But Goshen would not go away, scoring the next eight points to close within 12, and cutting the deficit to single digits at 31-22 with 4:12 to play in the half.  Valpo would score seven of the final ten points of the half, however, to take a 38-25 lead into the locker room.

The Crusaders put the game out of reach right out of the locker room at the start of the second half, going on a 15-5 run over the first 5:16 of the period to pull out to a 53-30 advantage.  Peters had eight of Valpo’s points during the spurt, while freshman Tevonn Walker (Montreal, Quebec/Vanier College) added four as well.  Goshen would get no closer than 19 points the rest of the way.

Peters was joined in double figures by Tevonn Walker and junior Keith Carter (Maywood, Ill./Proviso East [Saint Louis]), both of whom finished with ten points.  Both handed out four assists as well, while junior E. Victor Nickerson (Atlanta, Ga./Norcross [Charlotte]) and freshman David Skara (Zadar, Croatia/Ekonomska Skola Zadar) joined them with four assists apiece as the Crusaders tallied 23 assists on 29 baskets, going 29-of-54 (53.7%) from the floor.

Darien Walker grabbed a game-high nine rebounds, while Fernandez pulled down eight boards and Skara added seven caroms off the bench as Valpo out-rebounded Goshen 48-29.  The Crusaders ended the night with ten blocked shots, eight of which came courtesy of Fernandez.

Goshen was led by ten points off the bench from Geschke, including a pair of 3-pointers.  All 12 Maple Leafs who got into the game scored at least one point.  Valpo limited Goshen to just 30.4% shooting from the field.