The Valparaiso University men's basketball team led for nearly 25 minutes on Sunday afternoon, but visiting Murray State held the upper hand when the final buzzer sounded, beating the Beacons 85-79 in Sunday's Missouri Valley Conference opener. Owen Dease (Evansville, Ind. / Evansville Reitz [Texas A&M Corpus Christi]) posted a career-high 25 points off the Beacon bench.
 
How It Happened

• The two teams were back-and-forth early, with Murray State owning a slight lead for much of the game's early stages. The Beacons went ahead when Dease drained a jumper at the 14:42 mark to make it 11-10. A moment later, Rakim Chaney threw down a fastbreak dunk to add to the advantage.
• Freshman Carter Hopoi (Tauranga, New Zealand / Mount Maunganui College NZ]) added a dunk to lift the lead to four, but then the Racers ran off four consecutive points to tie the game at 17.
• Valpo responded with six straight points to vault back in front. A 3 by Tucker Tornatta (Evansville, Ind. / Reitz Memorial [University of Indianapolis]) with 6:28 on the clock pushed the lead back to five.
• The Valpo advantage fluctuated between two and six for the remainder of the half, and Murray State hit a 3 in the closing seconds of the opening stanza to cut the halftime deficit to three at 39-36. Valpo took 28 of its 32 first-half shots inside the 3-point arc, and as a result hit at a 53.1 percent clip from the field in the first 20 minutes.
• The Beacons upped the lead to six when Chaney nailed a trey at the 16:13 mark of the second half to make it 49-43. Dease added a pair of 3s to lift the lead to eight at 55-47.
• Valpo led 62-57 with 10:29 remaining after a 3 by Tornatta, but a 7-0 Racer run followed to put the guests ahead by two.
• The next Beacon lead came with 5:06 on the clock when Shon Tupuola (Brownsburg, Ind. / Brownsburg [Saint Mary-of-the-Woods]) made a pair of free throws to go ahead 73-72. Murray State scored the next five points to vault back ahead.
• Chaney's 3 with 2:55 to go reduced the lead to one, but Murray State reeled off nine straight in crunch time to go up eight and eventually win by six.

Inside the Game

• Dease poured in 25 points on 10-of-13 shooting, usurping his previous peak of 20 that occurred twice last season while playing for Texas A&M Corpus Christi. It marked the highest single-game scoring output by a Valpo player this season.
• Dease's 25 points was Valpo's highest total off the bench since Richie Edwards had 25 on Nov. 14, 2011 vs. Holy Cross (Ind.). Dease had the highest point total by a Valpo reserve against a Division-I opponent since Matt Kenney had 27 on Feb. 17, 2010 vs. Loyola Chicago.
• Dease became the first Valpo player to come off the bench and make 10 or more field goals since Brandon Wood made 12 on Nov. 15, 2009 at North Carolina.
• Since the start of the 2013-14 season, Dease joined Javon Freeman-Liberty and Ben Krikke (x3) as the only Valpo players to shoot 75 percent or better from the field with at least 13 attempts.
• Chaney (13) and Tupuola (11) joined Dease in double figures. Chaney had his highest scoring output of his last four games and was in double figures for the seventh time this year. Tupuola recorded his fifth double-figure scoring output of 2025-26.
• In three of Valpo's last four losses and three of the team's six losses overall this season, the Beacons have led for the majority of the game. They led for 19:45 to UNCW's 15:19, 27:50 to Marquette's 10:17 and 24:49 to Murray State's 10:52.
• Three of Valpo's last four losses have come by six points or fewer.
• Chaney dished out six assists, his second-highest total of the season and highest since seven on Nov. 19 at Cleveland State.
• Murray State outshot Valpo at the free-throw line 28-15 and had 23 makes to Valpo's 10.
• Pettigrew had the team's best plus-minus at +4 in 19 minutes before fouling out.
• Murray State has the second-highest KenPom rating in the league and was picked third of 11 in the league's preseason poll.

Postgame Press Conference
Click here for postgame press conference.

Up Next
Valpo (6-6, 0-1 MVC) will break for the Christmas holiday before visiting UNI on Monday, Dec. 29 at 7 p.m. in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The game will air on ESPN+.