This was a big weekend in the Horizon League. Eight teams played two contests from Thursday through Saturday.
The Butler Bulldogs defeated WSU on Thursday and then narrowly defeated a poor Detroit team at home, 54-50. Butler trailed at halftime to the Titans, a team with just four wins this season. In fairness, the Bulldogs obviously had their minds elsewhere. They made just two three-pointers and made numerous unforced errors.
Wisconsin Green Bay edged Milwaukee in overtime in the weekend's most dramatic game. Milwaukee held the Phoenix to just one point over the last five minutes while they closed a 10 point gap to tie the game.
In overtime, the Phoenix scored the final four points on free throws to notch a two-point victory that moved Green Bay into sole possession of second place. The Panthers were perfect in 20 attempts from the line.
WSU lost 64-48 and won on Saturday by the same score. The Raiders won their first road game in league play since falling to the League's top three squads away from the Nutt House. The Raiders pressed Igbavboa perfectly and held the Crusaders to just 19 points in the first half.
However, the Raiders struggled in both games offensively. WSU was atrocious from the line on Saturday, hitting just 60 percent of its free throw attempts.
Cleveland State won twice at home, beating Loyola 76-50 and UIC on Saturday 79-69. The Vikings have not struggled since their road loss at WSU two weeks ago.
Loyala lost at CSU and beat Youngstown State 68-57. It will be a struggle for the Ramblers to return to the top of the conference by tournament time.
UIC lost both games this weekend and is quickly falling from contention. An 80-70 loss to the Penguins was embarrassing and a 10-point loss at CSU After promising wins early in the season, the Flames have implodes in League play.
YSU upset UIC 80-70 before falling to the Ramblers. Any win by the Penguins over a team outside Detroit is impressive, but it speaks more to UIC's inconsistency than a YSU turnaround.
Valparaiso crushed Detroit by 23 points on Thursday. Then the Crusaders were held to 33 percent shooting, 45 percent from the charity stripe and 32 percent from behind the arc against WSU.
Though the Raiders executed an excellent defensive scheme to limit Igbavboa to seven points, Valpo simply missed its shots.
Detroit is horrible. The Titans lost to Valpo and at Butler over the weekend. The Titans were better than the Bulldogs over 20 minutes; however, Detroit is not good enough to cash in on a horrible game by Butler.
The key matches remaining in the season are the Butler-Milwaukee game on January 24, Cleveland State at Butler, and Green Bay's visit to WSU, both on February 28.
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