Valparaiso led #15/10 Butler at the half in front of a capacity crowd at the Athletics-Recreation Center Friday night and was still leading
with less than ten minutes to play, but the Crusaders eventually fell to the
Bulldogs, 74-69, in both teams’ regular season finale. Senior
Brandon
McPherson (Indianapolis,
Ind./Lawrence North) broke
Valpo’s program record for games played in a career with his 128th
appearance.
“We’re all disappointed tonight, because we were looking for
the storybook ending,” said Crusader head coach Homer Drew. “We had a great
crowd, great atmosphere for a great Division I basketball game, and I just wish
we had been able to hit a couple more of our 3-pointers to maybe push the game
our way at the end. Our guys played
well, came out ready to play and really worked hard. You have to give Butler credit, they played well without one
of their best players [Gordon Hayward], and everybody pitched in a little bit
more than normal for them tonight.”
The Crusaders got out to a quick start on the national
television stage, scoring the first six points of the game within the first two
minutes on baskets in the paint by Howard
Little (Chicago, Ill./Stoneridge [Calif.] School), Brandon Wood (Kokomo, Ind./Kokomo [Highland C.C./Southern Illinois]
and Cory Johnson (Duluth,
Minn./Duluth East [Iowa State]). The 6-0
spurt sent Valpo out to a lead which it would maintain for almost the duration
of the opening half.
The lead swelled to eight points at 20-12 with 10:15 to go
in the half before Butler
responded with a 10-2 run to tie things up at 22 with 5:17 to play in the
first. The remainder of the half was
played within one possession, with the Bulldogs earning their first lead on a
Shelvin Mack layup with 16 seconds to go before the break. McPherson came down and got fouled on Valpo’s
final possession, however, and sank both free throws to send the Crusaders into
the locker room ahead 31-30.
Butler
came out of the break with a quick 10-2 spur, capped by a triple by Shelvin
Mack, to go up 40-33 with 16:55 to go.
The Crusaders didn’t back down, however, slowly cutting the margin down
until a bucket by Johnson tied the game at 44 with 13:24 to play. Johnson then connected on a triple on Valpo’s
next trip, the Crusaders’ first successful 3-pointer on their 16th
attempt of the night, to put it back in front, and a basket two minutes later
by Ryan Broekhoff (Frankston,
Victoria, Australia/Australian Institute of Sport) extended the Crusader lead
to 49-46 with 10:39 remaining.
But the Bulldogs reeled off a game-changing 19-3 run over
the next six minutes to take control of the contest, with 3-pointers on
back-to-back possessions by Willie Veasley mid-run to stretch a five-point edge
to 11. With Butler
up 65-52 and 4:49 to play, the Crusaders made one final push to get back in the
game, eventually closing to within five points at 69-64 on a Matt Kenney (Mooresville, Ind./Mooresville)
triple with 1:22 to go, but the Bulldogs answered with a layup by Mack on their
next trip down to end Valpo’s attempt at the upset.
Johnson had a monster game for the Crusaders, hitting nine
shots from the floor and 9-of-10 from the free throw line to finish with 28
points while also pulling down ten rebounds.
On his senior night, McPherson was the only other Valpo player in double
figures, tallying 14 points. The
Crusaders struggled immensely from behind the 3-point arc on the night, hitting
just 4-of-25 (16.0%) from downtown.
“I’m really proud of what Cory and Brandon did for us tonight,” said Drew. “They really made the difference as far as
keeping us in the game. I was also proud
of the team as a whole for fighting hard the whole way. We got down double digits late, but didn’t
give up and managed to get back to within five points.”
Veasley paced Butler
(26-4, 18-0), which capped a perfect Horizon League slate, with 20 points on
7-of-12 shooting. Matt Howard added 17
points and seven rebounds, while Mack scored 16 as well.
Valparaiso (15-16, 10-8) will now wait for Saturday’s
results to roll in to find out where it will be seeded and who it will face in
the first round of the 2010 Speedway Horizon League Men’s Basketball
Championship. The Crusaders do know they
will be playing that game at the ARC on Tuesday evening at 7 p.m. As always, all the action can be heard live
on the Valpo Sports Radio Network (WEFM, 95.9 FM, Michigan
City; WAKE, 1500 AM, Valparaiso;
WLPR, 89.1 FM, Lowell) and can be seen on the Horizon League Network.
Valpo’s athletic website, www.valpoathletics.com,
will have links for live audio, video and statistics.