In what was a lighter week for the Horizon League, just one team won more than one game, but Wright State held steady, winning its one game, and Purdue Fort Wayne had a masterful showing in its one opportunity. There are no more ties in the top two spots in the standings for now as a Sunday tilt broke the tie for second. Here is a recap of the week.
Teams of the week
Oakland took to the road and made its trip to Wisconsin for games against Milwaukee and Green Bay and returned home as the only team in the league to win
twice last week. Thursday against a Milwaukee team, which has been unfortunately decimated by injuries, wasn’t the prettiest of games, but the Golden Grizzlies prevailed with a 73-60 win. Being without Seth Hubbard and John Lovelace Jr. for the rest of the season is tough enough, but missing Faizon Fields and Danilo Jovanovich up front proved to be too much for the Panthers to overcome. Michael Houge led all scorers with 19 points, and Brody Robinson added 17.
Oakland dominated a red-hot Green Bay team in a battle for outright possession of second place in the conference on Sunday. It was once again led by the bigs. Behind the defense and 18 offensive rebounds, the Golden Grizzlies won 88-63. The Phoenix are a relatively small team, and that was clearly a point of emphasis as Tuburu Naivalurua had his best game of the season, notching a 26-point, 10-rebound double-double. Isaac Garrett also had a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds. More impressively, however, the Oakland zone prevented Green Bay from getting anything going offensively, and just one Phoenix player scored in double figures.
Getting your first conference victory as a head coach is never easy, and for Ben Howlett, it took longer than he would’ve liked, but IU Indianapolis is finally on the board in the Horizon League win column, and it did so by taking down the defending champions. In a thriller of a game, the Jaguars took down Robert Morris 96-93 in overtime at The Jungle.
The Colonials led for nearly the entire game, but IU Indianapolis never dug too deep of a hole and clawed back until Kyler D’Augustino eventually tied the game with 17 seconds remaining to force overtime. In overtime, Aiden Miller connected on a three on the Jaguars’ first possession, and they never fell behind again, holding on for a major win for a program looking to take strides towards success.
IU Indianapolis nearly made it back-to-back conference victories playing an extremely competitive game with Detroit Mercy before ultimately falling 80-77 on Saturday. Given the lack of recent success for both teams, despite one team having to lose, a high-quality game between the two is an encouraging sign for the direction of both programs.
Notable results
After falling to IU Indianapolis, which was previously winless in league play, Robert Morris bounced back nicely on Saturday. The Colonials went to Northern Kentucky and won 92-89 in overtime, holding off a heroic effort from Donovan Oday, who had 38 points for the Norse. Five players scored in double figures for Robert Morris, led by Ryan Prather Jr. with 23. The defending champs have some work to do if they want to compete for a regular-season crown, but when things are clicking, they can beat anybody.
The Purdue Fort Wayne backcourt went nuclear in its one game last week as the Mastodons took down Milwaukee 100-82 on Sunday. Corey Hadnot II did a little bit of everything, as usual, scoring 19 points and adding six assists, four rebounds and two steals. DeAndre Craig Jr. scored 20 points to go along with eight rebounds, five assists and three steals. The player of the game, however, was Mikale Stevenson, who scored 34 points with six assists and two steals. The trio of guards is plenty good enough to take Purdue Fort Wayne to its first NCAA Tournament, and Sunday showed that.
Wright State, which remains alone atop the standings, played just one game last week and took care of business against a struggling Youngstown State team. Michael Cooper returned in a limited capacity by playing 15 minutes off the bench, but more notably, four starters scored double figures. TJ Burch led the way with 24. The Raiders are continuing to show strong, balanced production offensively and look all the part of the league’s best team at the moment.
Cleveland State picked up a conference win last week for the first time since Dec. 29. The Vikings also defeated the previously mentioned struggling Youngstown State 80-78. Dayan Nessah had 26 points but made just five field goals and converted on 15 of his 21 free throw attempts. Chevalier Emery added 17 off the bench, including a late free throw to set up a final defensive stand for Cleveland State to close out the victory.
