A pair of freshmen guards stepped up in a big way, helping the Valparaiso University men's basketball team overcome a 16-point road deficit to beat host Southern Illinois 83-79 on Saturday night at the Banterra Center in Carbondale, Ill.
 
The Beacons were led by a pair of rookies down the stretch, as All Wright (Durango, Mexico / Link Year) finished with a game-high 29 points while Justus McNair (Joliet, Ill. / Joliet West) turned in 14 points off the bench. While the youth was on display, a college basketball veteran made the game's grittiest plays, as Tyler Schmidt (Valparaiso, Ind. / Victory Christian Academy [Olivet Nazarene]) garnered the Grit Award after grabbing seven rebounds and handing out four assists to go along with 10 points to contribute to Valpo's third win in four games.
 
How It Happened

• Valpo missed seven straight shots leading into the first media timeout, allowing Southern Illinois to build up a 9-2 advantage early.
• The shooting struggles continued as Valpo was 3-of-17 from the field and had missed all eight 3-point tries at the under-12, allowing SIU to build up a 16-6 edge.
• Wright scored his first points of the game and knocked down the team's first made 3 of the night, then quickly followed with another made triple, cutting the lead to 10 at 24-14 with 7:07 on the first-half clock.
• After trailing by 16 at 24-8 with 7:50 left in the first half, Valpo outscored Southern Illinois 23-13 over the remainder of the half to trim 10 points off the deficit and go into the locker room down 37-31. Wright was the driver of the run, scoring all 16 of his first-half points over those final eight minutes.
• Schmidt provided a gritty effort in the first half, turning in five points, six rebounds, two assists and a steal before the break.
• Valpo came out knocking down shots in the second half, hitting five of the team's first six field goal attempts, but Southern Illinois shot at a high clip over the first five minutes of the half as well and it remained a six-point deficit at 50-44 with 15:03 on the clock.
• The SIU lead was 10 at 65-55 with 9:24 to play, but freshman Justus McNair hit a big 3 and had a traditional 3-point play to help Valpo cut the gap to four at 67-63 with 7:50 to play.
• A trey by Schmidt at the 7:21 mark cut the lead to three, then a 3-point play by Wright with 6:49 to play made it 71-69. McNair made two free throws to tie the game, then swished in a go-ahead 3 to make it 74-71 Valpo with 5:24 to play. That marked the team's first lead since 2-0.  
• SIU cut the lead to one with 4:53 to play, but Valpo responded with a 7-0 run to build up an 81-73 lead with 2:56 to play. The Salukis closed to within three on several occasions, but Valpo eked out the four-point win.

Inside the Game

• Valpo has won back-to-back games for the first time since stringing together three straight victories to begin the calendar year of 2025.
• This marked Valpo's 13^th victory of the season, moving to within one of doubling last year's season win total of seven.
• The Beacons garnered their sixth Missouri Valley Conference win of the year, doubling last season's league win total of three.
• This triumph snapped a seven-game head-to-head losing streak against Southern Illinois that dated back to Feb. 21, 2021.
• Valpo has surpassed the program's 2022-23 conference win total of five and tied with 2021-22 for the team's highest MVC win total over the last four years.
• Valpo rallied from 16 points down, outscoring SIU 75-55 after trailing 24-8 early. This marked the team's second straight double-figure comeback after overcoming a 10-point disparity to beat Missouri State on Wednesday.
• The Beacons famously came from 22 down on Dec. 20 of this season at Western Michigan. Before this season, Valpo had not rallied from 15 or more down to win since March 6, 2020 vs. Loyola (18) in the MVC Tournament quarterfinals.
• Wright did not score in the first 12 minutes of the game, so all 29 of his points came in the game's final 28 minutes. The 29 points was his second-highest total of the season, behind a career-high 32 on Feb. 5 at Indiana State. He is 24-of-25 at the free-throw line over his last four games including 6-for-6 on Saturday.
• Wright has scored 20 points or more six times in his last eight games. He scored 16 points in the final eight minutes of the first half, similar to his finish to the second half on Wednesday vs. Missouri State.
• McNair's first basket of the game came with 8:53 remaining, meaning all 14 of his points came over the game's final nine minutes. He scored in double figures for the first time in the last nine games and had his highest scoring output since 19 on Jan. 14 at Belmont.
• When no one else was playing well early in the game, Schmidt kept Valpo in it. His seven rebounds were one shy of a season high, his four assists tied a season high and his 10 points came on an efficient 4-of-7 shooting.
• Sophomore Cooper Schwieger (Overland Park, Kan. / Blue Valley Southwest [Link Year]) scored 12 points while pulling down eight rebounds and blocking two shots. This marked his 20^th straight game with at least a dozen points and his fourth straight game with multiple rejections. He snagged seven rebounds or more for the sixth time in the last seven games.
• With his two blocks, Schwieger climbed into at tie for 10^th in program history for blocks in a single season with 51, moving even with Zoran Viskovic's 1998-99 season.
• Senior Darius DeAveiro (Kanata, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada / Orangeville Prep) dished out four assists, increasing his career total to 368 and moving into a tie with Todd Smith (1985-89) for sixth in program history.
• Valpo went from shooting 32.5 percent in the first half to 53.3 percent in the second half. After going just 4-of-17 (23.5 percent) from 3 in the first half, the team went 6-of-10 in the second half. After just one free-throw attempt in the first half, Valpo went 15-of-17 (88.2 percent) after halftime.
• The Beacons committed just seven turnovers in the game, the 19^th time this season Valpo had 10 turnovers or fewer.

 
Up Next
Valpo (13-16, 6-12 MVC) will close out the home portion of the season with Senior Night at the Athletics-Recreation Center on Wednesday at 8 p.m. vs. Bradley. Seniors Tyler Schmidt and Darius DeAveiro will be recognized as part of a pregame ceremony and will address the crowd along with head coach Roger Powell Jr. following the game. In addition, kids 12 and under will receive free hot dogs. For ticket information, visit tickets.valpoathletics.com.