After suffering a tough loss to
Green Bay, the Crusaders hoped to pull a stellar upset against the #13 ranked
Bulldogs Friday night in Indianapolis.
The tenacious Crusaders earned
their first lead of the night with just over six minutes to play. This was
after Butler went on an 11-0 run. With 90 seconds to play, Valparaiso fought
back to pull within two.
After the first ten minutes of
the first half, the Bulldogs had a commanding 10-0 lead and would eventually
take the lead at 19-8 with 5:18 to play in the first half. But over the next
three minutes, Valparaiso answered with eleven points of their own.
“I was very impressed with our
defense in both halves,” Head Coach Homer Drew said. “We just gave up too many
second chance points.”
With 11:29 to play, Butler led
by eight before surrendering an eight-zero run to force a tie at 37.
From 8:00 until 2:15, neither
team could manage to hold onto the lead as the teams traded possessions.
With 2:00 to play in the game,
Butler had a seemingly insurmountable 52-43 advantage. But the Crusaders would
not give up without a fight.
With 91 seconds to play,
Valparaiso could have pulled the upset if they had converted their free throws.
Down by six with ten seconds to play, Butler made it 57-51 to erase any hopes
of a Crusader upset.
Freshman Logan Jones came off
the bench and had his first double-double of his career. He contributed ten
points and had 5-6 from the free throw line.
“I really thought Logan had the
best game of his career so far,” Drew said. “He did a great job handling the
ball, as well as getting into the lane, drawing fouls, and converting at the
line.”
Senior forward/center Urule
Igbavboa led the Crusaders with 15 points while Jones chipped in 10 of his
own.
Next up for the Crusaders is
the Raiders of Wright State in Dayton, Ohio.
No comments:
Post a Comment