Men’s Basketball Scoreboard (Nov. 10)
Youngstown State 75, Eastern Kentucky 67
Valparaiso 113, North Park 50
Wright State 82, Mount St. Joseph 49
Youngstown State captured the de facto championship of the Kennesaw State Tournament, while Valparaiso and Wright State rolled against non-Division I competition to wrap the opening weekend for Horizon League men’s basketball teams.
Youngstown State 75, Eastern Kentucky 67
Playing its third game in less than 72 hours, Youngstown State received a tour-de-force performance from Kendrick Perry in a 75-67 win over Eastern Kentucky.
Perry, the Horizon League Preseason Player of the Year, finished with 31 points, nine rebounds and seven assists for Youngstown State (3-0), which won three straight to open the season for the second consecutive year.
Sophomore Ryan Weber scored 17 points with four 3-points and nine rebounds and the Penguins outrebounded the Colonels, 45-30.
Leading by 10 at halftime, 36-26, the Penguins quickly boosted their lead to 15, 41-26, after an alley-oop dunk from DJ Cole to Perry and a three-point play by Bobby Hain at the 18:24 mark.
Over the next 15 minutes, the Colonels whittled the Penguins lead down to two, 66-64, with 3:14 to go. Perry scored the next five points on a layup and an old-fashioned three-point play to extend the Penguins advantage back to seven, 71-64, at the 1:15 mark.
EKU's Orlando Williams cut the deficit down to four, 71-67, with a 3-pointer with 52 seconds left, but the Penguins made four free throws down the stretch to seal the victory.
In the first half, the Penguins trailed the Colonels, 20-14, at the 8:25 mark after EKU's Isaac McGlone's 3-pointer.
The Penguins, who made nine 3-pointers, went on an 18-1 run, keyed by six straight 3-pointers, over the next five minutes to take a 32-21 lead with 3:42 left. Perry's 3-pointer got the Penguins within three then freshman Marcus Keened tied the game at 20-20 with 7:37 left.
Consecutive 3-pointers by Weber, one by Perry, and another by Weber finished the Penguins’ scoring jaunt.
A 3-pointer by EKU's Tarius Johnson cut the lead down to six, 32-26, but two free throws by DJ Cole and a layup by Perry closed out the half and gave the Penguins a 36-26 halftime lead.
Valparaiso 113, North Park 50
Typically, Valparaiso head coach Bryce Drew sheds his suit coat early in the game. However, the Crusaders gave him no reason to do so on Sunday afternoon, rolling to the fifth-largest win in program history, 113-50 over North Park.
Valparaiso’s (2-0) 63-point margin of victory was the second-largest since the move to Division I, trailing just a 70-point win over IU-South Bend in November of 2005. Meanwhile, the 113 points scored missed by just three points cracking the Crusaders' all-time top-10 single-game scoring outputs and were the most points scored by a Valpo team since a 118-83 victory against Chicago State in March of 1996.
The Crusaders ran their offense efficiently no matter which five were on the court on Sunday, shooting at a 70.2-percent clip from the floor (40-of-57), the best single-game shooting percentage in at least 20 years. The balanced offensive effort started with senior LaVonte Dority, both to begin the game as he knocked down 3-pointers on Valpo's first two possessions, as well as on the final stat sheet. Dority ended the night with a new career high of 21 points in just 17 minutes, going 7-of-8 from the field, including a 5-of-6 mark from behind the 3-point line.
Dority led five players in double figures for the Crusaders on Sunday. Freshman Clay Yeo finished with 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting in 21 minutes off the bench, while also handing out a team-best five assists. Jordan Coleman scored 14 points, including a pair of fast-break dunks. Bobby Capobianco registered 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting in 17 minutes of action, while freshman Jubril Adekoya knocked down all four of his field goal attempts en route to 11 points.
The Crusaders' starting lineup of Dority, Coleman, Capobianco, freshman Alec Peters and fifth-year senior Moussa Gueye got Valpo off to a quick start on Sunday, out-scoring the Vikings 15-3 over the opening four-plus minutes.
Coming out of halftime up 51-32, the starters put together a 16-5 run over the same amount of time to effectively put the game away.
North Park, a Division III school which played the game as an exhibition game, was limited to 27.9% shooting, including just five second-half field goals. The Crusaders tallied 10 blocked shots as a team, one off the school single-game record. Vashil Fernandez led the way with four rejections and also paced Valpo with eight rebounds.
Wright State 82, Mount St. Joseph 49
Behind a flawless effort from A.J. Pacher, Wright State cruised past Mount St. Joseph, 82-49, in the Raiders’ season opener.
Wright State (1-0) received 21 points from Pacher, as the center went a perfect 9-for-9 from the floor, adding five rebounds. Led by Pacher, the Raiders outscored Mount St. Joseph, 44-12, in the paint.
Sophomore JT Yoho was 3-of-5 from 3-point range in finishing with 17 points, while Jerran Young came off the bench to post a 10-point, 10-rebound double-double. Yoho’s three to close the first half capped a 9-0 finishing run that put Wright State up 19 at the intermission, 43-24.
Defensively, Wright State forced 21 Mount St. Joseph turnovers, which led to 32 WSU points.
In his first collegiate game, Steven Davis chipped in 10 points off the bench. All 10 Raiders who appeared in the game scored as Wright State shot 56.6 percent from the field.
No Raider played more than 28 minutes as they never trailed and led by 10 or more points for the final 26:41 of the game.
The first Horizon League Player of the Week and Freshman of the Week awards will be announced on Monday, Nov. 11; the same evening, Milwaukee will head to Davidson (7 p.m. ET) and Detroit will host UM-Dearborn in its home opener (7 p.m. ET), live on the Horizon League Network.