The Valparaiso University men's basketball team dropped Tuesday's game to visiting Cleveland State 75-67 at the Athletics-Recreation Center. Junior Devon Ellis (Schaumburg, Ill. / Conant) scored a team-high 19 points to lead four Beacons in double figures.
 
How It Happened

• The early stages of the game featured a back-and-forth nature that saw Valpo repeatedly take a one-score lead and Cleveland State quickly claw back to tie the game. Freshman All Wright (Durango, Mexico / Link Year) swished a triple to put Valpo ahead 13-10 with 12:21 left in the first half.
• Valpo was either in front or tied for the first 13 minutes, but the Vikings captured their first lead on a made 3 that made it 17-16 with 7:02 on the first-half clock.
• Fifth-year senior Tyler Schmidt (Valparaiso, Ind. / Victory Christian Academy) hit a pair of free throws to help Valpo regain the lead, and the Beacons eventually pushed the edge to five on a tip-in by sophomore Cooper Schwieger (Overland Park, Kan. / Blue Valley Southwest) with 3:28 to go in the half.
• Valpo led by half a dozen with the first-half timer in the final minute, but Cleveland State hit a key 3 going into halftime, slicing the deficit to three. Both teams struggled to shoot it from distance in the opening half as the last-second shot was just the second make in eight attempts for the Vikings, while the Beacons were 1-of-8.
• Cleveland State took its first lead of the second half with an old-fashioned 3-point play to go up 38-37 at the 17:11 mark.
• Valpo trailed by two five minutes into the half, but a 5-0 CSU spurt including a 3-pointer by Chase Robinson widened the gap to seven at 50-43 with 14 minutes to go in the half. The lead reached double figures for the first time with 9:47 to play and a 6-0 run got the gap to 12.
• The Beacons fought to within six when Wright made a second-chance trey with 1:20 to play, but the hosts couldn't get over the hump. Cleveland State shot 58.1 percent in the second half.

Inside the Game

• Ellis tallied a season-high 19 points including 8-of-11 at the free-throw line while squeezing five rebounds.
• Schwieger led Valpo on the boards with eight. He has pulled down six rebounds or more in each of the team's three contests this season. He scored a season-high 14 points.
• Junior Jefferson De La Cruz Monegro (LaSalle, Quebec, Canada / Orangeville Prep) posted 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting. He has scored a dozen points or more in all three games and is 13-of-14 at the free-throw line this season.
• Wright made his way into double figures with 10, a season high. He did so on 4-of-5 shooting.
• Redshirt junior Louth-M Coulibaly (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada / Canada Topflight Academy) grabbed five rebounds in six minutes of action including three offensive boards.
• Valpo went 4-of-19 (21.1) percent from 3 but did go 19-of-24 (79.2 percent) at the free-throw line. As a team, Valpo is shooting 81.5 percent at the free-throw line through the first three games.
• Senior Darius DeAveiro (Kanata, Ottawa, Canada / Orangeville Prep) handed out three assists, moving to within two of becoming the 15^th player in program history to reach 300.
• This was the first meeting between Valpo and Cleveland State since Valpo departed the Horizon League after the 2016-17 season.

Postgame Press Conference
Click here to view the postgame press conference.
 
Up Next
The Beacons (1-2) will have the next eight days off before taking on Lindenwood on Thursday, Nov. 21 at 7 p.m. at the ARC. Tickets are available on tickets.valpoathletics.com.