Primarily a collection of news links about all 11 Horizon League teams on a daily basis, culled from online newspapers, school athletic websites, the conference website, and school newspapers, plus some other content from time to time.
Oakland is playing spoiler in the Horizon League. The Golden Grizzlies have now defeated each of the league’s top three teams, first Valparaiso and Wisconsin-Green Bay and now Cleveland State after a 59-56 win Monday night. In fact, Greg Kampe’s team has climbed into fourth in the league, just one game out of a tie for first place. Oakland being a tough out is nothing new; Kampe’s teams have been challenging and occasionally beating more established opponents for years. But after a 1-5 start and a 5-12 record after 17 games, this year’s team is a surprise to be causing so much trouble in the Horizon. A less-than favorable schedule down the stretch will test the Golden Grizzlies (three home games, five road games), but it also will provide plenty of opportunities to impress if Oakland can hang around at the top of the conference.
Up 15 in the first half on some dazzling execution, then back in a brief battle thanks to a mistake-fed Rutgers surge, MSU found the good stuff again in the second half and pulled away for a 71-51 decision. The Spartans (14-7, 5-3 Big Ten) set themselves up for Sunday's home date with Michigan by reviving their transition game, drilling eight three-pointers and getting 18 points from Bryn Forbes and another double-double (17 points and 11 rebounds) from Branden Dawson.
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In a game postponed two days by a Northeast blizzard that didn't live up to expectations, Forbes blew past his, matching his most productive outing as a Spartan. After coming off the bench for the previous three games, he switched back with Javon Bess – because Bess suffered another ankle sprain – and was aggressive from the start.
The junior transfer from Cleveland State matched his most shots (10) and three-point conversions (4) of the season.
"We told him we were gonna (get him more shots)," Izzo said of a pre-game talking point, "but I thought the key to the game, I thought we were a lot better screening team tonight."
Branden Dawson had 17 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, four steals and two blocks while Bryn Forbes scored 18 as Michigan State rolled to a 71-51 victory at the Rutgers Athletic Center.
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"The bright spot is I thought we got back to our roots," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. "We defended well, we rebounded well, we fast-broke well. … Now we got Forbes more into the game, which helped. And Branden Dawson has been, no question, a player that's gotten better each and every game."
It was the fifth-double-double this season for Dawson, the Big Ten's top rebounder, and the 18 points from Forbes matched his best as a Spartan. Travis Trice had 10 points and five assists while Matt Costello scored nine and had five rebounds. Denzel Valentine added seven rebounds and three assists while scoring eight points. Lourawls Nairn added a career-high eight points.
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The second half was more of the same as Dawson sparked the decisive run with a running layup that was turned into a three-point play with a free throw, a nice dish to Costello on the fast break and a near steal that led to a Forbes 3-pointer and a 52-36 lead for the Spartans with more than 16 minutes to play.
For junior transfer Bryn Forbes, it will be his first taste of the rivalry.
And for the Lansing native, getting to play in the rivalry for the first time at home will be even bigger.
"Oh man, I'm so excited," said Forbes, who scored 18 points on Thursday. "It's gonna be crazy."
Injury report
Forbes was back in the starting lineup on Thursday after coming off the bench the previous three games. This time it wasn't about performance, it was because freshman Javon Bess aggravated an ankle injury in practice.
Derrick Walton Jr. had a breakout game last year in East Lansing, but an injured foot threatens to keep him out of the Wolverines' lineup Sunday. Spike Albrecht has been solid since joining the starting lineup and Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman can step in if needed.
MSU's tandem of Travis Trice and Denzel Valentine has had some huge games this season but inconsistency has plagued them at times. Trice has the ability to take over games, evidenced by a 26-point game against Iowa when he was 7-for-8 from 3-point range, while Valentine is one of the Spartans' best all-around players. Junior transfer Bryn Forbes provides plenty of scoring, shooting 47.3 percent from 3-point range, good for second in the Big Ten.
Despite their #23 ranking this week, the Hurricanes are nowhere near a lock for the NCAAs, either. Miami entered the night with just two RPI top 50 wins, the same number of sub-100 losses they have after getting housed by Georgia Tech, which was previously winless in the ACC. The Hurricanes have more wiggle room than the Wolfpack thanks to seven road/neutral wins, but the impression of getting hammered by Wisconsin-Green Bay, Eastern Kentucky and now Georgia Tech is not a good one. And with six road games left and home games against Louisville and North Carolina, this is a team with work to do.
Detroit 59, (at) Youngstown State 58: Rosanna Reynolds had 19 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists to lead the Titans, who started the second half with a 22-4 run to come back from a double-digit deficit.
Ellisha Crosby added 13 points and Darianne Steward had 10 for Detroit (7-12, 2-4 Horizon).
Heidi Schlegel had 15 points and 15 rebounds for Youngstown State (14-4, 3-2).
Numbers to figure
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7.5: Oakland's Kahlil Felder is one of the better passers in the country that no one has heard of. After averaging 6.2 assists per game last season as a freshman, Felder is now averaging 7.5 assists after his 13-dime night in the Golden Grizzlies' overtime win over Wright State. If he continues on his pace for the rest of the season, Felder will have over 450 assists by the end of his first two years, which is something only nine players have done in their first two seasons at a school since 2000, and Felder would have a better assists-per-game number than all but three of them (Kendall Marshall of UNC, T.J. Ford of Texas and Chris Thomas of Notre Dame). Just a terrific small school player.
We don’t have a big slate, but there are some important games on tap. We also must keep an eye on any impact for games later in the week from the winter storm that is already hitting the northeast as of early Monday morning.
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It’s a busy night in the Horizon, MEAC, Southland and SWAC. Among the interesting matchups there are Cleveland State visiting Oakland (Horizon), Delaware State traveling to play 7-0 North Carolina Central (MEAC), and best of all is a SWAC showdown with Southern (6-1) visiting Alabama State (6-0).
Two of the Horizon League’s top teams play on Monday night as Valparaiso hosts Milwaukee and Cleveland State travels to Oakland. The Crusaders are a game behind the Vikings, but have the better non-conference profile.
The senior went 2-for-10 for only four points in a loss to Wright State. Howard Jr. is averaging 18.2 points per game on the season. The 6-foot-5 wing only had one other single-digit scoring game this season before Monday night.
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NOTABLES
Oakland held off Cleveland State for a Horizon League home win as guard Kahlil Felder made the go-ahead bucket and the game-icing free throws to seal the win. Felder led the Golden Grizzlies with 16 points and six assists.
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Valparaiso raced out to a 30-5 lead on Milwaukee and never looked back for a Horizon League win. Sophomore forward Alec Peters had 24 points as the Crusaders improved to 19-4 and 6-2 in league play.
Green Bay recorded a huge conference win Friday, defeating Valparaiso. The Phoenix are tied atop the Horizon League standings with the Cleveland State Vikings, who they play Saturday.
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12. Valparaiso (18-4, 5-2 Horizon). Last week: 13
Valparaiso’s five-game winning streak ended Friday with a 51-50 loss at Green Bay. The Crusaders have a fairly easy week ahead with games against Milwaukee and UIC.
Player of the Week
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Honorable mentions: Alec Peters, Valparaiso; Bryant McIntosh, Northwestern; Myke Henry, DePaul; Vashil Fernandez, Valparaiso
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Team of the Week
Valparaiso split two games last week and had its five-game winning streak snapped, but there’s no reason not to be an optimistic Crusaders fan right now. The loss came to Horizon League favorite Green Bay by only one point on the road.
The Crusaders sit in third place right now, but after that performance they showed they will be in the mix for the conference title this winter.
Game of the Week
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Honorable mentions: Valparaiso-Green Bay; Northwestern-Ohio State; DePaul-Seton Hall
The Oakland University women’s basketball defeated Youngstown state 85-82 on Saturday to earn its third Horizon League. Olivia Nash led the team with 20 points in the effort.
Men’s Basketball
Detroit Pistons center Andre Drummond attended the men’s basketball game on Thursday night against Milwaukee. On Monday night, LeBron James attended the game against Cleveland State to support his long time friend and Oakland assistant coach, Brandon Weems. Oakland athletics twitter handle
@goldengrizzlies was trending in Detroit at one point on Monday because of LeBron James’ appearance.
Corey Petros was named as a candidate for the senior class award. He has a 3.43 GPA and is only the third player to earn at least 1400 points and 800 rebounds.
Tonight’s Menu: Six games on tap, though this diet is high in fiber with quite a bit of good stuff, plus three of the six are on TV too.
Valparaiso at Wisconsin-Green Bay (9 p.m. EST, ESPN2) One of the best games of the year in the Horizon League with two of its best players facing off in Alec Peters for Valpo and of course Keifer Sykes.
Detroit at Cleveland State The Vikings are hanging right with Green Bay and Valpo at the top of the Horizon. The Titans are going to be a dangerous spoiler all year, though.
With 30 seconds left and Green Bay clinging to a one-point lead, the Phoenix left the door open for Valpo twice, however, the Crusaders could not capitalize on either possession. Keifer Sykes was 4-of-17 for 11 points, but Green Bay found a way to grind out this win, limiting Valpo to 34 percent shooting and 2-of-10 from three.
With Cleveland State winning as well, Green Bay shares the top spot in the Horizon League. The Phoenix travel to Cleveland State next Saturday with first-place on the line.
STARRED
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Trey Lewis, Cleveland State: The 6-foot-2 guard was two points off his career-high with 30 points and eight rebounds in a 70-66 win over Detroit.
With MSU up, 54-51, and less than 4 minutes left, Costello got the ball on the baseline. He could have forced up a shot in traffic. He could have looked for forward Branden Dawson cutting from the middle. Instead, he saw Penn State collapse on Dawson as Bryn Forbes slid to the corner on the other side of the floor.
That was the read MSU talked about before the game, and in one lunging drive, Costello turned catalyst — first time since high school, he said later — and executed the plan. From under the rim, he whipped a pass to the wide-open Forbes, whose three-point swish was the biggest basket of the game.
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"Faking backdoor, get them to lean one way so the screen can really help," said the shot-starved Forbes, who has taken just 27 in the past five games.
