Horizon League Tournament Quarterfinal Recap
by Bill Kintner
DAYTON, Ohio – Two out of three ain’t bad, or maybe it is the third time is a charm. The University of Illinois-Chicago, which had defeated Loyola in their two previous meetings, could not complete the season sweep as they fell to the Ramblers 66-62.
For most of the first half, UIC (14-18) held a single-digit lead thanks to Josh Mayo, who scored 11 points, and their guards harassing the Ramblers’ guards. With just 2:03 left in the first half Loyola’s Andy Polka hit a jumper to give the Ramblers their first lead of the game at 32-30. When the buzzer sounded, Loyola had completed a little 10-4 run that gave them a 39-34 halftime lead.
Coming out of the half, Loyola (21-10) went on another 10-4 spurt in the first eight minutes of the second half to take a 48-38 lead.
“We really did some nice things in spurts. We had some nice spurts the last few minutes of the first half and the first few minutes of the second half. Give UIC credit, their zone gave us some troubles,” said Loyola coach Jim Whitesell.
Loyola’s dominance on the boards really kept the Flames from making a prolonged run. Loyola out-rebounded UIC 40-26, including 16 offensive rebounds.
“We really took a beating on the boards and that made a big difference in the game,” explained UIC interim coach Mark Coomes.
At the 6:14 mark Loyola’s Blake Schilb hit a 3-pointer to give the Ramblers their biggest lead of the game at 56-44. Schilb led all scorers with 31 points.
Then the Flames went to work and started to chip away at Loyola’s lead. For UIC, it was a jumper by Jovan Stefanov, then a 3-pointer by T. J. Gray, a couple of good free throws by Othyus Jeffers, another jumper by Stefanov and couple more buckets by Jeffers that brought Loyola’s lead down to two points at 62-60 with just 43 seconds to go in the game.
Then Schilb put it away when he made a jump shot as Jeffers fouled him. He made the foul shot to put the Ramblers up by five at 65-60.
A made foul shot by Loyola’s Tom Levin and then a basket by UIC’s Gray put the final score at 66-62.
Night Cap: Phoenix Complete Three-Game Sweep
University of Wisconsin-Green Bay did what they always say can’t be done in basketball and that is beat a team three times in one season as they beat Youngstown State handily, 72-55.
The Phoenix jumped out to a 7-2 lead in the first three and a half minutes. Youngstown State (14-17) took the lead back at the 13-minute mark at 11-10 when John Barber hit a jumper. At the 8:44 mark they took a 15-14 lead when Keston Roberts hit a short jumper.
And that was it for the Penquins’ leads. They never led again. The Phoenix took over, and at the half they led 33-24.
In the second half, Green Bay (18-14) just kept slowly pushing the led out. With 9:34 left it was 51-36, and it stayed about 12-15 points until there was 30 seconds left, when Tevah Morris made two foul shots to get the final score to 72-55.
The Penguins’ two stars, Quin Humphrey and Keston Roberts, were both kept under 20 points. Humphrey scored just 12 points, going 3-12, and Roberts scored 18 points on 8-20 shooting.
Green Bay Coach Ted Kowalczyk thought that containing Humphrey and Roberts was the key to winning the game.
“Making Humphrey and Roberts work for everything they got (was key). And I think we did that,” said Kowalczyk.
Ryan Tillema led Green Bay with 22 points and Ryan Evanochko scored 17 points.
Sights and Sounds of the Horizon League Tournament
- According to Butler Sports Information Director Jim McGrath, Butler received word today that the NCAA Selection Committee decided to count Butler’s three games at Conseco Fieldhouse as neutral games rather than home games. That should raise Butler’s RPI a few notches.
- UIC’s interim head coach Mark Coomes compiled an 8-11 record after he took over for coach Jimmy Collins, including five wins in the last seven.
- Former Wright State Assistant Coach Brian Donoher did the color commentary for the Horizon League Network and Raiders’ play-by-play announcer did the play-by-play.
- The last time Green Bay played the Raiders at the Nutter Center in a conference tournament game was when they won the then-Midwestern Collegiate Conference Championship in 1995.
- The semifinal games will be No. 3 seed Loyola versus No. 2 seed Butler at 5 P.M., and at 7 P.M. No. 4 seed Green Bay takes on No. 1 seed Wright State.
