The Valparaiso University men's basketball program took another step forward on Thursday night, continuing a season of progress with a 67-50 victory over UIC in the opening round of Arch Madness, the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament in St. Louis. This marked the team's first conference tournament triumph under head coach Roger Powell Jr. and allowed the squad to double its overall win total from a year ago.
 
How It Happened

• After UIC scored the game's first basket, Valpo went on a 6-0 run, including a 3 by Carson Schwieger (Overland Park, Kan. / Blue Valley Southwest [Wright State / Link Year]) on an assist by twin brother Cooper Schwieger (Overland Park, Kan. / Blue Valley Southwest [Link Year]) that started the Beacon scoring. After the early bucket, the Flames went on a five-minute scoring drought.
• The Valpo lead fluctuated between one and three until Cooper and Carson reversed roles, with this time Carson assisting and Cooper throwing down a dunk to make it 12-7 Valpo with 12:08 left in the opening half.
• UIC cut it to one at 16-15, but Valpo followed with a 9-0 run to open the lead to double figures, capped by a triple from freshman All Wright (Durango, Mexico / Link Year) that made it 27-17 with 4:43 left in the opening half.
• Another Valpo run – this time 8-0 – doubled the cushion to 16 at 35-19 after a fastbreak layup by Wright with 2:24 on the first-half clock. That 16-point lead was intact at halftime at 37-21.
• A 10-0 run helped Valpo stretch the lead from 14 to 24 at 12:32 of the second half after a jumper by Tyler Schmidt (Valparaiso, Ind. / Victory Christian Academy [Olivet Nazarene]) made it 51-27, and the Beacons cruised the rest of the way.

Inside the Game

• The Beacons were -12 and -10 in rebounding margin in the two regular-season matchups with UIC before outdoing the Flames on the boards 43-36 on Thursday.
• Valpo held UIC to just 29.8 percent shooting, Valpo's best field-goal percentage defense against a Division-I opponent since holding Southern Illinois to .236 on Feb. 12, 2020. This was the team's second-best field goal percentage defense against a Missouri Valley Conference opponent since joining the league.
• Valpo set a season best for fewest points allowed against a Division-I opponent. This marked the team's fewest points allowed vs. a D-I team since winning 59-50 at Illinois State on Jan. 14, 2024.
• The 50 points were the fewest scored by UIC this season. The field-goal percentage of .298 was also a season low.
• The 17-point margin of victory was Valpo's largest against a Missouri Valley Conference team this season, surpassing 15 against Belmont. This marked Valpo's largest margin of victory against an MVC team since beating Illinois State 71-51 on Jan. 21, 2023.
• With the victory, Valpo snapped a three-game Arch Madness losing streak, picking up its first win in St. Louis since beating Evansville 81-59 in the first round on March 3, 2022.
• With the win, Valpo captured its 14^th win of the season, doubling last season's win total.
• Valpo reversed the result against a UIC team that had won both regular-season matchups.
• Carson made his first collegiate start on Thursday.
• Cooper recorded his league-most ninth double-double of the season and the 11^th of his career, finishing with 17 points, 11 rebounds and six blocks.
• Cooper's career-high six blocks marked the most by a Valpo player since Vashil Fernandez had six on March 22, 2016 vs. St. Mary's in the NIT. He outdid his previous high of five rejections, reached twice, most recently Feb. 19 vs. Missouri State.
• Cooper became the fifth player in the nation this season to record a 17-point, 11-rebound, six-block game. He became the first Missouri Valley Conference player to record that stat line in a game between two Valley teams since Southern Illinois' Thik Bol on Feb. 19, 2017.  
• Cooper's six blocks lifted his career total to 90, moving into a tie for eighth in program history. He lifted his season total to 61, vaulting from ninth to sixth on the program's single-season blocks list.  
• Cooper scored 12 points or more for the 23^rd straight game.
• Cooper climbed over Dan Oppland for sixth in program history for points by a sophomore with 499.
• Wright cracked the top 10 in MVC history for points by a freshman, finishing the night in eighth in Valley history with 473 points as a rookie.   
• Wright's game-high 22 points represented his eighth time in the last 11 games tallying 20 or more.
• Senior Jefferson De La Cruz Monegro (LaSalle, Quebec, Canada / Orangeville Prep [Western Michigan]) threatened a double-double with nine points and a career-high-tying nine rebounds. He surpassed his previous season best on the glass of six that occurred on Dec. 29 at Bradley and equaled his career best that occurred on Dec. 16, 2023 while playing for Western Michigan, ironically also in a game against UIC.
• Senior Darius DeAveiro (Kanata, Ottawa, Canada / Orangeville Prep) tied a career high with seven rebounds, his fifth career seven-rebound game and first since Feb. 16 of this season. Schmidt pulled down six boards as well.
• Valpo won the turnover battle for the 25^th time in 32 games this season and had 10 turnovers or fewer for the 22^nd time. The Beacons held a 9-8 edge in that area.

Postgame Press Conference
Click here for postgame press conference.
 
Up Next
Valpo (14-18) advances to take on third-seeded UNI on Friday at 8:30 p.m. in the quarterfinals of Arch Madness at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis. The game will air on the MVC-TV Network and ESPN+.