Keeps Horizon League Men’s Basketball Championship Semifinal Roundup
#REACHtheHORIZON Tournament Central | #HLMBB Bracket
INDIANAPOLIS – The 2022 Keeps Horizon League Men's Basketball Championship shifted to Indianapolis for semifinal action on Monday with Northern Kentucky and Wright State picking up wins at the Indiana Farmers Coliseum to set up a rivalry game for Tuesday's championship on ESPN at 7 p.m. ET.
RESULTS
| GAME |
RECAP |
| No. 4 seed Wright State def. No. 1 seed Cleveland State, 82-67 |
Box Score |
| No. 3 seed Northern Kentucky def. No. 2 seed Purdue Fort Wayne, 57-43 |
Box Score |
GAME RECAPS
No. 4 Wright State 82, No. 1 Cleveland State 67
Sports Capital Journalism Program, IUPUI
INDIANAPOLIS – The Wright State Raiders advanced to the men’s title game of the Keeps Horizon League Basketball Championships, defeating defending champion and top-seeded Cleveland State, 82-67, at Indiana Farmers Coliseum Monday night.
The Raiders (20-13) will meet Northern Kentucky on Tuesday night with a chance to win their third Horizon League title and the second in five seasons. With this appearance in the championship game, Wright State has made the final nine times in 16 seasons.
Wright State denied Cleveland State the possibility of having its men’s and women’s teams win Horizon League titles on the same day. The Cleveland State women advanced to the championship game earlier on Monday.
Grant Basile, a 6-foot-9 junior forward, led Wright State with 27 points on 10-for-15 shooting, and had 11 rebounds. Trey Calvin, a 6-foot junior guard, scored 17 points with seven assists. Tanner Holden, a 6-foot-6 junior guard and First Team All-League selection, was held to 12 points and 3-for-10 shooting. Holden had been third in the league in scoring with an average of 20.1.
Tim Finke, a 6-foot-6 junior guard, scored 12 points, including a basket that started a 9-2 run over the last 5:56 of the first half that extended a three-point Raider lead to a 36-26 halftime advantage.
Wright State reached the semifinal with a come-from-behind 75-63 quarterfinal victory over Oakland in which the Raiders overcame a 14-point second-half deficit with a 20-0 run.
Cleveland State (20-10) was led by D’Moi Hodge, a 6-foot-4 senior guard, who scored 16 points. Torrey Patton, a 6-foot-5 senior swingman and second-team All-League selection, was held to four points, more than 10 below his average. Finke led the defensive effort that limited Patton to 2-for-10 shooting from beyond the 3-point line. Patton scored 25 points in Cleveland State’s quarterfinal victory over Oakland.
“When you have other great defenders on the floor, it makes it easy,” Basile said.
“Defensively, it’s about as good as we’ve been all year,” said Wright State coach Scott Nagy.
The Vikings were held more than nine points beneath their previous average of 76.2 points in league play, the second-highest average in the conference. The defending conference tournament champion never held the lead. Cleveland State, which made 34.3% of its 3-point attempts in conference play this season, made just three of 20, or 15%, Monday night.
The Raiders had lost twice to Cleveland State, losing 85-75 at home on December 4 and 71-67 at home on January 28.
The Raiders also lost twice to Northern Kentucky, losing 73-63 on the road on January 25, and 75-71 at home on February 13.
“I told them this time of year, they don’t need my voice,” Nagy said. “It’s their team.”
No. 3 Northern Kentucky 57, No. 2 Purdue Fort Wayne 43
By Owen Kaelble
Sports Capital Journalism Program, IUPUI
INDIANAPOLIS – Thanks to a double-digit advantage on the glass and a defense which held the Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons to 29% shooting from the floor, the Norse from Northern Kentucky University moved on to the Horizon League Championship game with a 57-43 triumph Monday night at Indiana Farmers Coliseum.
Northern Kentucky (20-11) will face off against the No. 4-seeded Wright State Raiders, who defeated the No. 1 seed Cleveland State Vikings 82-67 earlier in the evening. The championship game is at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
“We knew it was going to be a big challenge and I’m really proud of our guys because to be honest with you this is not the kind of game we could have grind(ed) it out and won in the past,” said Norse head coach Darrin Horn. “But over the last several months that mentality and that toughness has been building. We won tonight because of the way we defended. So, it was really good to see that and be able to stay alive and play for another championship.”
In addition to leading Purdue Fort Wayne 46-29 in rebounds, the Norse also had a balanced scoring attack, led by sophomore guard Marques Warrick, who contributed 19 points with five rebounds, three assists and two steals on the night. Senior guard Trevon Faulkner added nine points of his own, while junior Adrian Nelson paced the team on the glass with 14 boards.
The Mastodons (21-11) were led by Indianapolis native and redshirt-senior Ra Kpedi, who returned home in the losing effort. The Vermont transfer finished the night with nine points, along with seven rebounds, two blocks and one steal on the evening. Fellow senior Damian Chong Qui matched his nine points with four rebounds, two blocks and one steal of his own.
“I couldn’t be prouder of my group this year,” said Mastodons head coach Jon Coffman. “We won the league after facing significant challenges, scheduling, all that sort of stuff and what they were able to do by winning 10 games in a row to finish out the year. We were playing better than anybody in our league coming down the stretch and tonight I take my hat off to Darrin and his group in Northern Kentucky.”
Neither team shot above 32% from the floor in the first half, with the Mastodons managing only eight field goals and zero points in 12 attempts from behind the arc. Kpedi knocked in three of the eight, leading the team with seven points going into the half. Taking advantage of fast break opportunities, the Norse scored 13 of their 25 first-half points beating the Mastodons down the court and swished all four of their 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes.
While leading by only six points at the half, the Norse used a 10-3 run to begin the final 20 minutes and never looked back, leading by as much as 20.
UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Tuesday, March 8
#HLMBB Championship
No. 3 seed Wright State vs. No. 4 Northern Kentucky, 7 p.m. ET (ESPN)