RESULTS, MID-CONTINENT FIRST ROUND
Valparaiso 77 vs. S. Utah 66
Jarryd Loyd scored all 14 of his pts in 2nd half to help Crusaders (17-11) pull away from Thunderbirds (10-20) and into tournament semifinal meeting with top-seeded Oral Roberts.
UMKC 66 vs. Chicago St. 75
Royce Parran had 30 pts and surging Cougars (10-18) rallied in 2nd half for 6th win in 7 games, avenging 2 regular-season losses to Kangaroos (14-14). CSU now meets No. 2 seed IUPUI.
Chicago State reaches semis--The Chicago Sun-Times
College Basketball Roundup--The Daily Southtown
MID-CONTINENT CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT Chicago State 75, UKMC 66
TULSA, Okla. — Royce Parran scored 24 of his 30 points in the final 8:31 to rally Chicago State in a tournament quarterfinal game late Sunday night.
The sixth-seeded Cougars (10-18) advance to play second-seeded IUPUI tonight in the semifinals.
Parran set records for the 23-year-old tournament with 19 free throws made and 23 free throws attempted. In the second half, he sank his first 15 free throws and was 19-of-21.
Dee Ayuba led the third-seeded Kangaroos (14-14) with 24 points.
Valparaiso edges SUU--deseretnews.com
Oakland gets a big victory--The Detroit News
Oakland women upset Oral Roberts--The Oakland Press
By DUSTIN FRUCCI Special to The Oakland Press
TULSA, Okla. — Head coach Beckie Francis asked two things of her sixth seeded Oakland University women’s basketball team heading into the Mid-Continent Conference tournament: play tough defense and finish games.
Her team did both, coming up with its best defensive effort of the year in beating No. 3 seed Oral Roberts, 50-37, in the first round of the tournament Sunday at John Q. Hammons Arena.
OU held Oral Roberts to just 1-for-22 shooting from behind the 3-point line and forced 14 turnovers. The 37 points mark the lowest total ever for Oral Roberts in the Mid-Con tournament.
“I told my team this game was about guts,” Francis said. “We had the guts to step up and take charges and to really get after their perimeter shooters.”
OU needed all the defense it could muster as both teams shot just 29 percent from the field.
With 3:43 left in the first half, Oral Roberts went on a 7-0 run to head into halftime down 18-17.
The Golden Eagles continued the run with 10 straight points to open the second half and went ahead 28-18. Senior Jayme Wilson finally ended the stretch with a jump shot for OU at the 15:52 mark.
Elisha Turek had eight points for Oral Roberts (16-12) during that span. Francis said OU just needed to make adjustments.
“We really closed down on her after that run,” she said. “We forced their shooters to make shots. Fortunately for us, they didn’t.”
Senior Anne Hafeli made a 3-pointer, and freshman April Kidd took two charges and made a layup to help OU tie the game at 31-31 with seven minutes left.
Junior Nicole Piggott, having battled Oral Roberts’ bigger post players all game, made two 3-pointers to push the lead to six. They were the first points of the game for Piggott.
“That was the difference right there,” Oral Roberts head coach Jerry Finkbeiner said. “(Piggott) was able to play good defense on our girls down low and then step out on the perimeter and help her team offensively.”
OU (13-15) held off Oral Roberts down the stretch, going 10-for-10 from the free-throw line in the last two minutes.
Turek led Oral Roberts with 17 points and 14 rebounds despite constant double teams. Marianna Camargo added 10 points.
Hafeli led OU with 17 points, eight rebounds and four steals, and Wilson added 12 points. Piggott finished with 10 points.
OU advances to the semifinals to take on No. 2 seed IUPUI at 3:30 p.m. today. The Jaguars defeated Chicago State on Saturday.
“It will be another defensive battle, and they’re well-rested,” Francis said. “We got our work cut out for us.”
LATE SATURDAY--The Oakland Press
OU men fail to recapture magic
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TULSA, Okla. — George Hill scored 20 points to lead four Jaguars in double figures as IUPUI beat Oakland, 69-63, Saturday night in the first round of the Mid-Continent Conference tournament.
Matt Burks scored 14 points, and David Barlow added 12 for second-seeded IUPUI (19-9, 13-3), which beat the Golden Grizzlies for the third time this season.
Rick Billings led No. 7 Oakland (11-18, 6-10) with 15 points. The Jaguars held Golden Grizzlies leading scorer Calvin Wooten to just one point on 0-for-6 shooting, well below his average of 19.9 points per game.
IUPUI led by as many as 13 in the second half when Maushae Byles’ jumper with 13:39 left put the Jaguars ahead 41-28.
Oakland pulled to 46-41 on Shawn Hopes’ lay-in at 7:01 but could get no closer.
Brandon Cassise hit three 3-pointers in the final 1:35 to keep the Golden Grizzlies in it, but the Jaguars hit 8-of-11 free throws in the final two minutes to seal the win.
IUPUI took control with a 13-1 first-half run that made it 18-9. Barlow scored six points in the run that gave the Jaguars a lead they would never relinquish. They led 24-20 at halftime.
Cassise and Hopes had 14 points for Oakland, who won the conference tourney as a No. 7 seed last year. Brandon Coles had 10 points for IUPUI.
IUPUI plays either UMKC or Chicago State next.
MEN’S ROUNDUP--The Oakland Press
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mid-Continent
Valparaiso 77, S. Utah 66 — At Tulsa, Okla., Jarryd Loyd scored all 14 of his points in the second half to help Valparaiso pull away from Southern Utah in a Mid-Con tournament quarterfinal game.
UMKC coming homeThe Kansas City Star
Crusaders finally break the Tulsa curse--The Post-Tribune
March 6, 2006
By Justin Breen / Post-Tribune deputy sports editor
TULSA, Okla. — The jinx is over.
Fourth-seeded Valparaiso ended its 0-for-Tulsa nightmare with a dreamy 77-66 victory over No. 5 seed Southern Utah on Sunday in the opening round of the Mid-Continent Conference Tournament.
Prior to Sunday, the Crusaders were 0-11 in Tulsa, but they exterminated that monkey in workmanlike fashion.
“We were real serious about that heading into this game,” Valparaiso senior Ron Howard said.
Valparaiso (17-11) will meet No. 1 seed Oral Roberts in tonight’s first semifinal. The teams split their season series, but VU is 0-10 all-time against ORU in Oklahoma.
“We have to improve. We’ve got a very challenging game,” Valparaiso coach Homer Drew said.
Dan Oppland captained Valparaiso with a team-high 17 points and nine rebounds. In 35 minutes, he shot 7-of-12 with two assists and just one turnover.
“Dan’s the man,” Howard said afterward.
Jarryd Loyd (career-high-tying 14 points), Mohamed Kone (14 points, seven rebounds, five blocked shots), Howard (12 points, six rebounds) and Jimmie Miles (10 points, career-high eight rebounds four assists) were critical contributors as well.
“I thought the balance was really tremendous tonight,” said Drew, whose club had 16 assists.
Moussa Mbaye was the lone bench player to excel as he had seven points in 13 minutes.
Loyd and Miles iced their injured ankles after the game. Drew said their status for tonight’s tilt is still up in the air.
“We’re still not where we’d like to be health-wise,” Drew said. “We’re still not completely healthy.”
Howard provided a thunderous one-handed jam that helped Valparaiso carry a 31-25 lead into halftime. Oppland was the biggest contributor before the break with 11 first-half points.
Southern Utah (10-20) came within 54-50 with 7:48 remaining before Valparaiso strung together a 9-1 run over the next three minutes. After that, the Crusaders were never in danger of becoming the sixth No. 4 seed in the last seven years to lose to the No. 5 seed in the first round.
“It’s a great start,” Oppland said. “There’s always room for improvement, but it’s a great start.”
Valparaiso shot 29-of-59 (49.2 percent) from the field and 11-of-15 from the free throw line.
Southern Utah coach Bill Evans said Kone was “the difference.”
“I think he changed the game,” Evans said of Kone, who was a big factor in holding Southern Utah center Lubor Olsovsky to 1-of-11 shooting.
The Crusaders were outrebounded in the teams’ first two meetings, but they had 36 boards to the Thunderbirds’ 30 on Sunday.
The Thunderbirds, who beat VU 62-59 to win the 2001 Mid-Con tourney for their only NCAA Tournament berth, were led by Henry Uhegwu’s 15 points. Steve Barnes added 14 points and seven assists.
“I know I felt a little bit tight,” Barnes said. “We needed to get going a little bit sooner.”
Contact Justin Breen at 648-3122 or jbreen@post-trib.com
VU avenges last year’s season-ending loss--The Post-Tribune
March 6, 2006
By Justin Breen / Post-Tribune deputy sports editor
TULSA, Okla. — The sting of last season’s 59-49 loss to UMKC in the opening round of the Mid-Continent Conference Tournament still resonates with Valparaiso’s women’s program.
The Crusaders weren’t about to experience the same feeling again as they outlasted and then hammered the Kangaroos 69-48 on Sunday at John Q. Hammons Arena.
“In our locker room this week, we had last year’s score on everybody’s locker,” said Betsy Rietema, who had a game-high 22 points. “We wanted the roles to be reversed this time.”
Valparaiso, seeded fourth, will face top-seeded Western Illinois in today’s semifinals. The Westerwinds swept the season series on their way to their fourth straight regular season title.
The Crusaders’ win was a complete effort from multiple personnel.
Tamra Braun was a constant menace on the boards (16 rebounds) and in the paint (four blocks) as Valparaiso outrebounded the Kangaroos 42-34. Braun also contributed 18 points.
“I just came to play basketball today,” Braun said. “You don’t have tomorrow if you lose.”
Lauren Bechtold provided a key steal-and-basket during an 11-2 second-half run that put the Crusaders in command.
Senior Jamie Gutowski scored 13 points, including three 3-pointers.
“I kind of took the mindset that this wasn’t going to be my last game,” Gutowski said. “All our focus was on this game, and it showed.”
Fifth-seeded UMKC (10-18) crept within 38-36 before Valparaiso responded with its difference-making spurt.
Valparaiso (16-12) looked nothing like the team that had lost three straight games to end the regular season, which included a 69-63 loss at UMKC on Feb. 25. The Crusaders’ final game of the regular season — a 53-31 loss at Oral Roberts — was especially disturbing.
But they brushed off the cobwebs Sunday in a big way.
“I thought we really came out with a lot of energy and a lot of team unity,” Valparaiso coach Keith Freeman said. “I felt we got great play out of our entire team. I was really proud of them.”
The Crusaders grabbed a 31-22 halftime lead behind a dominating effort on the glass. Valpo outrebounded UMKC 24-15 in the opening 20 minutes, and Rietema led the way with 14 points.
Valparaiso had been sloppy in its previous three games, but the Crusaders had only seven turnovers against the Kangaroos.
“We did a much better job of handling the basketball,” Freeman said.
Stephanie Brown led UMKC, which had won its last three regular season games, with 13 points and 12 rebounds.
Contact Justin Breen at 648-3122 or jbreen@post-trib.com
At last, a showdown worth watching
March 6, 2006
By Justin Breen / Post-Tribune deputy sports editor
TULSA, Okla.
Christian schools aren’t supposed to have enemies, but Valparaiso and Oral Roberts aren’t exactly friends.
Hate is a strong word, so let’s just say the two institutions don’t like each other that much.
And they’ll get to express their fond feelings during tonight’s semifinals of the Mid-Continent Conference Tournament.
“To us, it’s just another ballgame,” Valparaiso coach Homer Drew said after VU dispatched Southern Utah 77-66 in Sunday’s opening-round game.
Yeah right.
Finally, a matchup exists that’s worth watching at this otherwise blasŽ, bad tourney played before a mostly empty John Q. Hammons Arena.
Of course, unless Oral Roberts’ men are on stage.
Valparaiso coach Homer Drew has so much authority at the Athletics-Recreation Center, earlier this season he was granted a timeout by an official even though the Crusaders didn’t have possession.
But Drew and VU won’t be in charge tonight.
They’ll be the guests in a hostile environment. Their smattering of gold-clad fans will be drowned out by ORU blue, and, well, gold.
That doesn’t mean the Crusaders can’t prevail. If they put together a complete effort, they probably should win. After all, they blasted the Golden Eagles 80-60 on Jan. 9.
Those were the Good Crusaders. The Bad Crusaders have been around quite a bit, too, this season.
Problem is, you just don’t know what team will show up.
If the Crusaders want to avoid their second straight tournament without a trip to the finals since the Ice Age, they’ll have to be Good, not Bad.
“We’ve got to just keep attacking,” senior Dan Oppland said. “We can’t be intimidated. We just have to go at them. If we do that, I think we’ll be OK.”
VU better secure a halftime lead. Oral Roberts is 18-2 when it has the edge at the break.
Conference player of the year Caleb Green’s going to get his stats, so the Crusaders must stymie brilliant marksman Ken Tutt, who went for a season-high tying 29 against Western Illinois on Saturday.
Valpo needs to stay out of foul trouble, too. Mohamed Kone, who has picked up a team-high 86 fouls, has to stay on the court, not on the bench.
And that rowdy bunch, spearheaded by ORU’s “The Maniacs” student section, must be silenced. Tonight won’t be like Sunday, when Southern Utah failed to provide a band, and the Thunderbirds’ fans consisted of cheerleaders and the school’s women’s team.
They’ll never say it, but Mid-Con brass would like nothing better than Oral Roberts in the championship game. No ORU means no people in the stands, and the conference hopes to put on a good show for Tuesday’s ESPN audience. A barren Hammons Arena — a high school facility that’s as good as any in the Mid-Con (that about sums up the conference) — would not translate well on TV.
But this is Valparaiso’s time. Their top five scorers will depart next season, which clearly looks like a rebuilding campaign.
Tonight is a must-win game.
Against a bitter, bitter foe.
“This is it,” senior Ron Howard said. “No better motivation than that.”
Contact Justin Breen at 648-3122 or jbreen@post-trib.com
Grizzlies hardly golden this time
March 6, 2006
By Justin Breen / Post-Tribune deputy sports editor
TULSA, Okla. — Andrean graduate David Carson didn’t relive last season’s glorious ride to the NCAA Tournament as his Oakland squad lost to IUPUI 69-63 in the opening round of the Mid-Continent Conference Tournament late Saturday night.
Carson did not score, playing just one minute, in the loss. Last season, the Golden Grizzlies marched to the NCAAs as the No. 7 seed, but they could not do the same as the No. 7 seed this season.
“I thought we could win the thing,” Oakland coach Greg Kampe said. “I don’t think we could have beaten Oral Roberts, if we ever played, but I thought we could have beaten anyone else.”
IUPUI’s Bill Van Senus (Valparaiso High School graduate) and Brandon Cameron (West Side grad) combined to play nine minutes without scoring.
n WESTERN’S CRANE REMAINS CALM: Western Illinois coach Leslie Crane said her team isn’t overwhelmed with winning the Mid-Con regular season title four straight seasons, yet failing to advance to the NCAA Tournament.
“We don’t have nerves,” Crane said after the top-seeded Westerwinds eliminated No. 8 seed Southern Utah 50-37 on Saturday. “We’ve been in this position before. Quite frankly we’ve already qualified for a postseason tournament already.”
By winning the Mid-Con regular season title, the Westerwinds automatically will advance to the Women’s NIT if they don’t win the Mid-Con tourney. The Women’s NIT expanded to 40 teams this season to allow teams that win the regular season but not their conference tournament championships.
“We’re just going to go out and play,” Crane said. “People have said all year long we’ve had a target on our back. We don’t feel that target, either that or we’re used to it.”
Crane missed the last regular season game of the year, against UMKC, due to an allergic reaction to medication.
The Westerwinds, who will face Valpo in today’s first semifinal, feature two-time player of the year Zane Teilane, who is 27 points away from breaking Western’s all-time scoring record.
“Western is as well-coached team as there is in this league,” Valpo coach Keith Freeman said. “They are the toughest Western team since I’ve been here in terms of their team toughness. It’s going to be a battle.”
n UPSET SPECIAL: The favorites on the women’s side of the tourney held serve with the exception of No. 3 seed Oral Roberts — last season’s conference champs — which lost 50-37 to No. 6 seed Oakland in Sunday’s second quarterfinal.
Oakland will face No. 2 seed IUPUI in today’s second semifinal.
Contact Justin Breen at 648-3122 or jbreen@post-trib.com
Payback time--The NWI Times
Fired up--The NWI Times
WIU women vs. Valparaiso--The Peoria Journal Star
Kone leads Crusaders past T-Birds at Mid-Con--The Spectrum
SUU eliminated from Mid-Con tourney--The Salt Lake Tribune
Chicago State Drops #3 UMKC, 75-66--Chicago State Athletics
Kangaroos Fall To Valparaiso In Quarterfinals Of Mid-Con Championship--UMKC Kangaroos
Kangaroos Upset By Chicago State In First Round Of Mid-Con Championships--UMKC Kangaroos
OU Upsets Defending Champion ORU 50-37 in Mid-Con Tourney--OUGrizzlies.com
Poor Shooting Hampers ORU in Season-Ending Defeat--Oral Roberts University Golden Eagles
Valpo Moves Into Mid-Con Semis with Win over UMKC--www.valpo.edu
Crusaders Into Mid-Con Semis After 77-66 Win Sunday--www.valpo.edu
CRUSADERS TO MEET WESTERN ILLINOIS IN MID-CON SEMIS ON MONDAY--www.valpo.edu
CRUSADERS SEEKING CHAMPIONSHIP GAME BERTH MONDAY--www.valpo.edu
Top-Seeded Western faces No. 4 Valparaiso Monday at Noon--Western Illinois Athletics
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