Three is the Magic Number as Horizon Championship Set
by Bill Kintner
INDIANAPOLIS – When Valparaiso beat Wright State yesterday for the third time this year three was the magic number. Tonight three was the magic number for Cleveland State as they beat Valpo for the third time this season with a 78-73 decision to advance to the Horizon League Championship game.
Cleveland State started the game on fire, going up 10-2 at the 17:09 mark. At that point Valpo (21-13) looked like a team was playing for the second time in 24 hours. Their shots were falling a little short and they seemed to be a step behind the Cleveland State players.
The Vikings’ lead was up to 18 points when J’Nathan Bullock popped in a three-pointer with 6:38 left in the half.
Cleveland State (21-11) was led by Cedric Jackson’s 11 first half points as they shot 51.7 percent (15-29) including 53.3 percent (8-15) from three-point land in the first half. At the same time Valpo was just 3-12 (25 percent) from three-point land and shooting just 39.3 percent (11-28) for the first half.
Valpo’s Shawn Huff was amazed at how Cleveland State’s players were hitting outside shots as his team packed it inside to try to stop them from dominating inside.
“They were just making shots. Everyone was making shots, everyone who came in made a shot,” said a dejected Huff. “They shot over 50 percent from threes. We didn’t want them to dominate the inside and we were going to take our chances with that and they made us pay.”
The Crusaders did manage to work the deficit down to six points by half time at 39-33 by going on a 15-3 run over the last six minutes of the half.
Coming out to start the second half the Vikings went on a 9-0 run over the first 1:47 to make it 48-33, ending when Valpo’s Shawn Huff made a layup.
At the 6:16 mark Jackson made a jumper to put Cleveland State up by nine at 63-54. Seven seconds later Valpo’s Jarryd Lloyd made a three-pointer.
Bullock responded with a layup, then a three-pointer by Huff, another by Lloyd followed by a layup by Lloyd and the score tied for the first time at 65-65. Breyohn Watson came right back and hit a three-pointer to give Cleveland State the lead for good.
“That play developed off Cedric’s (Jackson) penetration and he ended up finding me. I stepped into it and knocked it down,” explained Watson.
A few seconds later a jumper by Norris Cole and then two foul shots by Cole got the Viking lead up to seven at 72-65 with 44 seconds left.
Two late three-pointers by Lloyd got the score down as close as three points at 76-73 with 8 seconds remaining, but when Valpo fouled Cole he made both free throws and that was how it ended with the score at 78-73.
Cleveland State coach Gary Waters felt fortunate that his team withstood the runs that the Crusaders made.
“Let me just say that we had some big plays down the stretch by a number of people to finish that game out,” said Waters. “Even though we had leads in the game I have to give Valparaiso credit because they never gave up.”
Horizon League Semifinal: Butler/UIC
The script worked out just like it was planned. The 14th ranked team in the country and number one seed hosting the semifinal game pounds their opponent into submission to play in the championship game on their court Tuesday night.
Butler became the sixth straight number one seed to advance to the Horizon League Championship game by beating University of Illinois-Chicago 66-50.
This started out pretty well for UIC (18-15) as they jumped out to a 4-0 lead on a layup by Robert Bush and a lob from Stewart Spencer resulting in a thunderous dunk by Jermaine Dailey.
A quick layup by Mike Green and then a three-pointer by A. J. Graves put Butler (28-3) up 5-4 at the 17:35 mark. The Flames went back up by one when Dailey made a layup to make it 6-5 with 16:21 left.
UIC maintained a small lead until they finally pushed the lead up to five points when Scott Vandemeer was fouled by Butler’s Willie Veasley and made one of the two free throws to make it 16-11 at the 10:18 mark.
Butler went on an 18-2 run toward the end of the first half that resulted in a 10 point lead going into halftime at 34-24. The amazing thing was that Mike Green was responsible for 16 of the 18 points by either scoring or getting the assist.
Coming out of the half Butler continued the charge by going on a 19-5 run to push their lead to 24 points at 56-32 with 8:59 left in the game.
The Vikings whittled the lead down to 15 points with 2:07 remaining when Robert Kreps hit a three-pointer to make it 63-48. Two more free throws by Krebs and a three-pointer by Pete Campbell for Butler got the final score to 66-50.
Butler really put the game away from three-point land making 12 in 27 attempts (44.4 percent) and by just turning the ball over eight times.
Campbell, who was 5-10 from three-point land, said three-point shooting is what Butler looks to do.
“It is something we look to do. The important thing is when you hit shots like that you get stops on the other end. That’s what builds the lead and that’s what we need to do at certain points in the game,” explained Campbell.
Green led all scorers with 19 points, going 5-8 from the field and 8-10 from the charity stripe plus he had seven assists.
“Mike had a great game, no question about it. He has played like that all season,’ said Butler coach Brad Stevens. “He played with great poise and found different guys, he found the right guys at the right time.”
It wasn’t just Stevens praising Green. UIC coach Jimmy Collins thinks he may be the Horizon League Player of the Year.
“He is the player of the year. He is a tremendous leader for this team. Green looks to set up everybody else. When he doesn’t get that accomplished he scores,” said Collins.
Notes
- Cleveland State is just the second Horizon League team to go from losing 20 games to winning 20 games in back-to-back seasons. Last year the Vikings were 10-21 and this year they are currently 21-11. The other team to do it was Xavier, going from 8-20 in 1981-82 to 22-8 the following year.
- Former Butler Hall of Fame basketball player Ed Schilling so far has attended every session of the tournament, even when his Bulldogs were not playing.
- By winning their first two games of the Horizon League Championship, Valpo was trying to be the second first-year team to win the championship since Green Bay did it in 1995. Green Bay beat another first-year team that year in the championship, Wright State.
- Butler has won more Horizon League regular season titles (7) and tournament crowns (4) than any other active league member.
- This is the 5th time in six years that the number two seed advanced to the finals of the Horizon League Championship since they switched to the current format giving the first and second seeds double byes.
