Box Score Sophomore Cooper Schwieger (Overland Park, Kan. / Blue Valley Southwest [Link Year]) rewrote career highs in points (33), rebounds (18) and assists (five), polishing off a strong sophomore regular season with his best performance yet, but the Valparaiso University men's basketball team fell 77-73 on Sunday afternoon at Credit Union1 Arena in Chicago. Freshman All Wright (Durango, Mexico / Link Year) tallied 24 points, shattering Lubos Barton's Valpo freshman season scoring record that had stood for over a quarter of a century.
 
How It Happened

• Neither team led by more than one possession early until UIC's Filip Skobalj hit a 3 at the 12:28 mark of the first half to put the Flames up 16-12.
• Valpo got stuck on 14 points from the 12:09 mark to the 6:49 mark of the first half, a drought that allowed UIC to score seven straight and go up 23-14.
• The Beacons reeled off 10 consecutive points in the blink of an eye, erasing a nine-point deficit as freshman Justus McNair (Joliet, Ill. / Joliet West) drove to the basket for a fastbreak layup after a steal by senior Darius DeAveiro (Kanata, Ottawa, Canada / Orangeville Prep) on the other end. That made it 24-23 in favor of the guests after a stretch that saw DeAveiro and Wright hit back-to-back 3s on Schwieger assists.
• UIC regained the lead, but Valpo went back in front at 30-29 on another DeAveiro 3 with three minutes to go in the half.
• The Flames scored the next seven points to go back up by six, then Ahmad Henderson II hit a difficult 3 to beat the halftime buzzer, giving the hosts a 39-32 edge at the break.
• An 8-0 UIC run early in the second half gave the Flames their largest lead at 51-34 with 17:04 to play.
• The gap was still 17 with 12:40 to go, but then the Beacons continued their trend of battling back from behind. Wright and Schwieger fought the Brown & Gold to within 11, then Wright's pull-up jumper made it single figures with under nine minutes to go.
• Wright drilled a 3 at the 7:05 mark to pull within five at 70-65, and the Beacons used a 6-0 burst that finished with a jumper from just inside the arc by Schmidt with 4:33 to play.
• Schwieger drove to the basket and scored to make it 75-73 with 1:49 left. Valpo had the ball with a chance to tie or win in the closing seconds, but an impressive block by UIC's Tyem Freeman preserved the win for the Flames, who hit two free throws with five seconds left to seal the deal.

Inside the Game

• DeAveiro racked up six steals, one shy of tying a program record achieved three times, most recently by Lexus Williams on Nov. 12, 2016 vs. Trinity Christian. DeAveiro became the first Valpo player with six or more since Williams had a half a dozen on Nov. 27, 2016 vs. Ball State.
• Schwieger's 33 points were the most by a Beacon since Ben Krikke scored 34 on Feb. 19, 2023, also at UIC. In the last 15 Valpo seasons, only Brandon Wood (twice), Cory Johnson, LaVonte Dority, Alec Peters (three times), Krikke and Schwieger have scored 33 or more in a game.
• Schwieger became the first Valpo with a 30-point double-double since Krikke's aforementioned game at UIC and joined Alec Peters (6x), Javon Freeman-Liberty and Krikke as the only players with 30-point double-doubles in the last 15 years.
• Schwieger posted Valpo's first 30-point, 15-rebound, five-assist game on record. This marked just the third known 30-15-5 game by a Missouri Valley Conference player, joining Larry Bird on March 24, 1979 vs. DePaul and Oscar Robertson on March 31, 1959 vs. Louisville.
• He became the first player in the nation with a 30-point, 15-rebound, five-assist game this season and first nationally since Weber State's Dillon Jones on Feb. 29 of last season vs. Northern Colorado.
• Schwieger became the first player in the nation with a 30-point, 15-rebound, five-assist game in a regulation contest since Chattanooga's Jake Stephens on Dec. 18, 2022 vs. Belmont.
• Schwieger became the first player in the nation with a 33-point, 18-rebound, five-assist game since Houston Baptist's Darius Lee on March 5, 2022 in a four overtime game. He became the first player nationally to record that stat line in a regulation game since Cleveland State's Norris Cole had 41 points, 20 rebounds and nine assists on Feb. 12, 2011 vs. Youngstown State.
• Schwieger surpassed his previous career high of 28 points, which came in last year's regular-season finale on March 3, 2024 vs. Illinois State. His rebound total surpassed his previous best of 15 on Jan. 14, 2025 at Belmont. His assist total surpassed his previous best of four, achieved twice, most recently on Feb. 16 of this season at Evansville.
• Before Schweiger's 18 rebounds on Sunday, no Valpo player had more than 16 in a game since Alec Peters on Jan. 16, 2017 vs. Green Bay.
• Wright's 24 points boosted his season total to 451, surpassing Lubos Barton's Valpo freshman season scoring record of 441 that was set in 1998-99.
• Schwieger had one block, lifting his career total to 84, moving into a tie for ninth in program history with Antti Nikkila (1999-2003). He moved into sole possession of ninth in program history for blocked shots in a season with 55.
• Schwieger increased his season point total to 482, seventh among sophomores in program history, and his career total to 891, fourth in program history for total points as a freshman and sophomore.
• Wright's 24 points marked his third time in the last four games with 24 or more and his seventh 20-point performance in his last 10 games. He also grabbed four steals, surpassing his season high of three set at Missouri State.
• Schwieger and Wright combined for 78 percent of the team's scoring on Sunday. Schwieger had over half of Valpo's total rebounds.
• Valpo shot 38.6 percent for the game and 31.8 percent from 3. Valpo was outrebounded 43-33 but won the turnover battle 18-10. The Beacons returned to form at the free-throw line, going 12-of-13 (92.3 percent) after a rare rough night at the stripe on Wednesday vs. Bradley

Up Next
Valpo (13-18, 6-14 MVC) will start Arch Madness, the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament in St. Louis, on Thursday at 8:30 p.m. at the Enterprise Center. It appears the Beacons will rematch with UIC in the first round of the Arch Madness as UIC will likely be the No. 6 seed for the tournament. The final seeding on a fifth-seed tiebreaker between UIC and Illinois State will be official when the NET is updated on Monday morning. Thursday's game will air on the MVC-TV Network and ESPN+.