#HLMBB Postseason Scoreboard
CollegeInsider.com Tournament:
Wright State 73, East Carolina 59
Columbia 58, Valparaiso 56
NIT:
(5) Belmont 80, (4) Green Bay 65
Wright State 73, East Carolina 59
The Wright State men's basketball team scorched the nets for 61 percent, 67 percent in the second half, in rolling to a 73-59 win at East Carolina in the first round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT) Tuesday night.
The Raiders never trailed in the contest as they scored the first seven points, including a Matt Vest three, over a four-minute span. ECU came as close as 18-17 on a three-point play by Michael Zangari with 8:07 remaining in the first half, only to see WSU answer with a 13-2 run en route to a 31-24 halftime advantage.
Wright State made 11 of 20 shots in the opening 20 minutes, including five of 10 from three-point range, while the Pirates shot 33 percent overall and were just three of 12 from behind the arc.
East Carolina drew to within three early in the second half before the Raiders pushed the lead into double figures with a 13-0 run, a run capped off by back-to-back triples from Reggie Arceneaux.
The Pirates made one last push, cutting the margin to four with 4:55 to play, but another big WSU run, this time 9-0, made it 70-57 in the final minute. AJ Pacher accounted for seven of those nine points, including a three to start it.
Wright State made 16 of 24 shots in the second half, including four of five three-pointers, to finish at 61 percent overall and nine of 15 from behind the arc for 60 percent. East Carolina, meanwhile, shot 40 percent for the game but hit just four of 23 three-point attempts.
WSU led 34-26 in points in the paint and also had the advantage in points off of turnovers (15-11), second-chance points (7-4) and fast-break points (13-1).
Pacher scored 16 of his game-high 20 points in the second half while Vest had 12 points, six rebounds and five assists for the Raiders. Arceneaux added 11 off the bench and Cole Darling chipped in 10.
Prince Williams paced East Carolina (17-17) with 20 points off the bench.
Wright State (21-14) advances to the second round of the CIT, which will be held this weekend. The Raiders' destination and opponent will be determined after the conclusion of the first round on Wednesday.
Columbia 58, Valparaiso 56
The Valparaiso men’s basketball team saw its season come to an abrupt end in the first round of the 2014 CollegeInsider.com Tournament on Tuesday at the ARC, as Columbia’s Maodo Lo hit a buzzer-beating jumper from the top of the key to give the Lions a 58-56 victory. Valpo fifth-year senior Moussa Gueye (Thies, Senegal/SEED Academy [Alabama/Lake Land (Ill.) College]) broke the program’s single-season blocked shots record in his final game as a Crusader.
Trailing by five points with 6:24 to play, senior Lavonte Dority (Chicago, Ill./Foreman [USF]) nailed a big 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 50-48. Columbia’s Cory Osetkowski hit a pair of free throws to make it a four-point game, but two possessions later, sophomore Keith Carter (Maywood, Ill./Proviso East [Saint Louis]) sparked a quick 7-0 spurt with a lob to junior Vashil Fernandez (Kingston, Jamaica/Princeton Day [Md.] Academy), who threw down a powerful two-handed jam.
After forcing a miss on the defensive end, the Crusaders ran down the shot clock before Dority hit Carter out on the left wing for a deep triple, giving Valpo a 53-52 lead with 3:25 to go – its first lead since the opening stages of the second half. Then, freshman Clay Yeo (Bourbon, Ind./Triton) played the passing lane perfectly on defense, jumping in for a steal and going in for a two-hand slam on the break to make it 55-52 Crusaders with 3:01 on the clock.
The teams traded misses before Osetkowski knocked down a short jumper in the paint as the clock ticked under two minutes. The Crusaders missed on their next trip, and Osetkowski stepped out to hit a mid-range jumper with 1:04 to play to put Columbia on top, 56-55. Following a timeout, a driving miss from Dority was rebounded by Fernandez, who was fouled on his putback attempt with 27.8 seconds to play. The junior made the first before missing the second, with the Lions corralling the rebound. Lo took the ball himself for the entire final possession with Carter covering him, eventually knocking down a covered-up 18-footer from the top of the lane to beat the buzzer.
Columbia jumped out on top of the Crusaders early, hitting three early 3-pointers in a span of 96 seconds to claim an early 9-2 edge. Valpo responded with 11 straight points over the next four minutes to go up 13-9, as freshman Jubril Adekoya (Tinley Park, Ill./Andrew) started the run with a mid-range jumper. Fellow rookie Alec Peters (Washington, Ill./Washington) scored five points during the run, while Carter added four points as well to help the Crusaders go on top.
Valpo held the lead for much of the remainder of the first half before a scoring drought of nearly five minutes allowed Columbia to go ahead, 29-25. But Peters nailed a triple with a minute to play in the period, and Gueye got a second-chance basket just before the halftime horn to put Valpo on top, 30-29, at the break. Columbia would claim the lead on a basket by Osetkowski just 28 seconds into the second half and would hold it nearly the rest of the way, but the Crusaders never let the Lions pull ahead by more than five points.
Peters led Valpo on Tuesday with 14 points, hitting a trio of 3-pointers, and also pulled down five rebounds as well. Fernandez and Yeo both added nine points off the bench, while Dority scored eight and Carter and Gueye chipped in seven apiece. Fernandez paced the Crusaders on the boards with seven rebounds, six of which came on the offensive end, and Carter handed out five assists without committing a turnover.
Osetkowski paced Columbia (20-12) with 21 points, going 8-of-11 from the floor and 3-of-3 from behind the 3-point line. Lo finished the night with 13 points, eight rebounds and five assists.
Gueye, who entered the game already tied with Raitis Grafs for the program’s single-season blocked shots record, picked up the record-breaking rejection with an emphatic block just 2:23 into the game. The senior ended the night with four blocks, his seventh game of the year with at least four blocks, to close his lone season as a Crusader with 71 rejections. In fact, Gueye ended up just two blocks shy of the Crusaders’ career top-10 as well.
Tuesday also marked the final career game for Dority as well, who paced Valparaiso (18-16) with 535 points (15.7 ppg) on the year. Dority closed his two-year Crusader career with an even 750 points and finished fourth on Valpo’s all-time free-throw percentage chart, hitting at an 83.8% clip from the stripe for his career. He also connected on 145 free throws this season alone, third-most in a single year in Crusader history and the most by any Valpo player in 44 seasons.
Belmont 80, Green Bay 65
On Tuesday night, Green Bay (24-7) played for the first time in three seasons without starting point guard Keifer Sykes (Chicago, Ill.). The Horizon League Player of the Year missed a game for the first time in his career due to injury, and a resilient Phoenix team fell 80-65 to visiting Belmont (25-9) in the opening round of the National Invitation Tournament at the Resch Center.
Junior Greg Mays (Chicago, Ill.) scored a team-high 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting and freshman Kenneth Lowe (Little Chute, Wis.) came off the bench to add a career-high 12 on 5-of-7 from the field, but Green Bay could not overcome a season-high 21 turnovers against a Bruins squad that won the Ohio Valley Conference regular season title.
Belmont led 12-11 after a quick start for both teams before the Bruins scored 16 of the next 19 points to lead 28-14 with 9:47 to play. The visitors’ lead would reach 15 points before the Phoenix responded with a 13-2 spurt to close to 37-33. Sophomore Jordan Fouse (Racine, Wis.) capped the run with a steal and a dunk. He had two steals to break Green Bay’s single-season record.
The Bruins responded by closing the first half with a 12-4 lead to take a 49-37 halftime lead. Belmont, one of the nation’s top offensive teams, shot 54.3 percent from the field (19-35) in the opening 20 minutes while forcing 14 turnovers.
The lead for Belmont reached 19 points early in the second half, and despite another Phoenix response still led by 13 (69-56) with 4:04 to play. Senior Alec Brown (Winona, Minn.) scored the next six points to start a 9-3 spurt which cut the deficit to seven with 1:26 remaining.
In his final game of his career, Brown finished with nine points and six rebounds and also swatted a shot to tie the Horizon League career record for blocked shots. He finished his career with 1678 points, 800 rebounds and 308 blocked shots.
Belmont knocked down a three-pointer on the next possession to increase the lead to 10 points. The Bruins did not reach their season averages in points, field goal percentage or three-point field goal percentage, but ultimately pulled out the win due to 23 points off turnovers.
Under fourth-year head coach Brian Wardle, Green Bay won the Horizon League regular season title for the first time in 18 seasons and finished with the most wins by a Phoenix team since 1995-96.
