The Valparaiso University men's basketball team received a major second-half lift from freshman All Wright (Durango, Mexico / Link Year), who scored 20 of his team-high 22 points after halftime in a 95-73 loss to Ohio State at Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio on Tuesday. Sophomore Cooper Schwieger (Overland Park, Kan. / Blue Valley Southwest [Link Year]) and junior Jefferson De La Cruz Monegro (LaSalle, Quebec, Canada / Orangeville Prep [Western Michigan]) scored 16 points apiece for the Beacons.
 
Ohio State head coach Jake Diebler is a Valpo alum and former player and assistant coach for the Brown & Gold. He and Valpo head coach Roger Powell Jr. worked on the same staff as assistants under Bryce Drew at both Valpo and Vanderbilt.

How It Happened

• Valpo got off to a good start, including early triples by Tyler Schmidt (Valparaiso, Ind. / Victory Christian Academy), Schwieger and De La Cruz Monegro, who also tallied three the old-fashioned way in the early going. Valpo led 12-8 after the Schwieger 3 with 15:42 left in the first half.
• The Beacons were in front 16-14 with 12:08 left in the half, but then went on a scoring drought that lasted until the 5:01 mark. During that stretch of over seven minutes, the Buckeyes went on a 12-0 run to go up 26-16.
• Valpo fought back to within five on a Devon Ellis (Schaumburg, Ill. / Conant [Maryland Eastern Shore]) putback with 3:24 to play in the half, but Ohio State scored five points in a three-second span thanks to a basket, turnover and 3-point play in the closing seconds of the half, sending the Buckeyes into the locker room with their largest lead of the game at 41-30.
• Wright started his big second half right away with five points in the first three minutes including a traditional 3-point play to cut the deficit to eight. After that, Ohio State scored seven straight to open up a 15-point lead at 52-37 with 15:24 on the clock.
• The lead was double figures the rest of the way, reached 21 midway through the half and climbed over 30 with 5:33 remaining. Valpo scored the game's final five points.  

Inside the Game

• Ohio State's Devin Royal was the key player in the game, as he finished with career highs in both points (31) and rebounds (15). He had the highest scoring output by a Valpo opponent since Tucker DeVries on Feb. 4, 2023 (32 in 2OT) and the highest by a Valpo opponent in a regulation game since Isiaih Mosley of Missouri State had 32 on Jan. 15, 2022.
• While Royal shined for the Buckeyes, Wright did the same for the Beacons. He tallied 22 points, his second straight game with 20 or more, while going 8-of-15 from the floor and 5-of-6 from the free-throw line.
• Schwieger has scored 16 or more in four of his last seven and went 5-of-9 from the floor, 4-of-4 from the line and 2-of-3 from 3 on Tuesday. The Valpo sophomore squeezed a team-high eight rebounds including five on the offensive glass.
• De La Cruz Monegro has scored at least nine points in all 10 games this season including a season-best 16 in each of his last two outings. He is a combined 15-for-15 at the free-throw line in those two games against Central Michigan and Ohio State including a perfect 7-for-7 on Tuesday.
• Ellis had his highest scoring output in the last four games, going 3-of-5 from the floor and turning in eight points.
• Both teams were stellar at the free-throw line, as Valpo went 20-of-23 (87 percent) and Ohio State went 23-of-27 (85.2 percent). The Beacons, who already ranked sixth nationally in free-throw percentage entering Tuesday, are now hitting at an 82.5 percent clip for the season and have shot 79 percent or better in eight out of 10 games including back-to-back games shooting at least 87 percent.
• This was only the seventh game nationally in the NCAA this season where each team shot better than 85 percent from the free-throw line with a minimum of 20 attempts. This was the first such Valpo game since Nov. 29, 2013 vs. Mercer.
• While both teams shot it well from the stripe, neither side had good success from 3, where Valpo was 5-of-24 (20.8 percent) and Ohio State was 6-of-19 (31.6 percent). Three of Valpo's five 3s came in the first five minutes of the game.
• Each team had 10 turnovers, making this the ninth straight game that Valpo has either won or tied the turnover battle. The Beacons have given it away 10 times or fewer in seven of the squad's 10 games.

Up Next
The Beacons (5-5) will play a second straight road game on Friday at Western Michigan with a noon CT / 1 p.m. ET tip in Kalamazoo. The game will air on ESPN+.