Game Recap: Goodbye Seniors

On Saturday night, the Crusaders were able to send Cory Johnson, Howard Little, and Michael Rogers out winners in their final regular season home game at Valparaiso University with a 79-65 victory over conference foe UIC.  The trio combined for 28 points, 19 rebounds, and 8 assists.

Since I was participating in a fundraiser for Prevent Child Abuse Porter County (pcapc.org) I was unable to attend the game and will have to rely on the few text messages and the box score to guide me through this post.  Valpo was able to jump on UIC early and often building a quick 14-2 lead to start the game.  By halftime the lead had grown to 13 poitns.  UIC battled back behind Robo Kreps (21 points, 5 three pointers) and Paul Carter (21 points) and managed to make it a 4 point game with 5:30 remaining in the second half.  The Crusaders then went on a quick 6-0 run to rebuild the lead and effectively end UIC's hope of a comeback.  Valpo was led by Johnson's 18 points and Brandon Wood's 14 points. 

Some key statistics from this game:  Valpo had a large advantage over UIC in bench points (30-8), points in the paint (50-18), and rebounds (45-33).  The Crusaders also took care of the basketball, turning it over only 12 times while assisting on 20 of their 29 made hoops.

Valpo will take the number four seed, their highest seed ever since joining the Horizon League, into the Horizon League tournament which begins this week.  Tuesday night the Crusaders will host Youngstown State in a 4 v. 9 matchup at the ARC beginning at 7pm.