The Valparaiso University men's basketball team was tied at halftime and played tight throughout against a UNI team picked second in the Missouri Valley Conference, but the Panthers pulled away late and defended their home floor with a 58-48 victory on Monday night in Cedar Falls, Iowa in a game that was closer than the final score would indicate. Owen Dease (Evansville, Ind. / Evansville Reitz [Texas A&M Corpus Christi]) exploded for 18 second-half points to lead the Beacons after being held scoreless over the first 20 minutes.
 
How It Happened

• UNI held an 8-3 lead with 14:32 left in the first half as Valpo struggled for offense, but an all-bench group played the next three minutes and provided a spark, whittling the edge to one at 13-12 at the under-12 media timeout. Sader Servilus (Montreal, Quebec, Canada / Fort Erie International Academy) had a pair of early hoops and was the first player by either team with multiple makes.
• The Beacons continued to play the Panthers tight, but UNI maintained the edge, leading 19-16 with 7:07 left first. Shon Tupuola (Brownsburg, Ind. / Brownsburg) had a gritty second-chance basket to beat the shot clock.
• The Valpo defense continued to lock down, holding the Panthers scoreless for over five minutes. Servilus notched his third basket of the game with 4:26 left in the first half, giving Valpo its first lead of the game at 20-19.
• The two teams went into halftime tied at 22. Both squads played stellar defense in the opening half, as the Beacons were 1-of-12 from 3 but consistently extended possessions by holding a 22-14 rebounding edge including an 8-2 advantage on the offensive glass. UNI's leading scorer Leon Bond III did not play the final stretch of the first half after picking up his third foul.
• The two teams remained deadlocked early in the second half, with each team scoring six points over the first four and a half minutes. UNI made three of its first four shots but had a pair of early giveaways.
• Dease, Valpo's leading scorer on the season, came to life during the next stretch. He hit a pair of big shots, the second of which was a triple to shrink the lead to one with 11:04 remaining. His burst helped fend off a UNI lead that had reached six.
• UNI went on a quick 6-0 run, forcing a Valpo timeout after a 3 by Will Hornseth made it 44-37 in favor of the hosts, their largest lead of the game, with 9:01 remaining.
• Dease responded by continuing to make difficult shots, including an and-one that made it 44-41 with 7:15 left at the under-8 media timeout.
• After Valpo battled back, the Beacons went cold, missing four straight shots and going three minutes without scoring, a stretch that saw UNI increase the lead to five at 48-43 with 3:55 remaining.
• UNI forced Valpo into 12 misses in its final 13 shots of the night, and the Panthers held their largest lead of the game when the final horn sounded.

Inside the Game

• Dease's team-high 18 points came on 5-of-10 shooting and 6-of-7 at the free-throw line. He has scored 17 points or more in five of his last seven games. All of his scoring on Monday came after halftime.
• Servilus finished with six points, his highest output of the season.
• Freshman JT Pettigrew (Lisle, Ill. / Bolingbrook) squeezed seven rebounds, while Tupuola pulled down six.
• The Beacons held a 37-32 rebounding advantage and outdid UNI 15-4 on the offensive glass.
• The Beacons won the turnover battle 10-8.
• Valpo did seemingly everything right except knock down shots, as Valpo was 3-of-23 (13 percent) from 3-point territory.
• This marked the fewest points Valpo allowed in a road game since 58 on Jan. 11, 2025 at Murray State, also a defeat (L 58-47). Valpo is 18-2 in its last 20 games when holding opponents under 60 points and those are the two setbacks.

Up Next
Valpo (6-7, 0-2 MVC) will ring in the new year in Carbondale, Ill. with a New Year's Day matinee that tips at 2 p.m. against Southern Illinois. The game will air on ESPN+.