Polls: Tennessee’s still on top. Oklahoma took its first loss (a 96-42 shellacking at the hands of Texas Tech) and dropped to fourth.
Awards:
Horizon League Player of the Week: PF #1 Melvin Dearman, 6’6” senior, Wisconsin-Green Bay (25.5 ppg, 10 rpg)
Horizon League Freshman of the Week: SF #25 Terence Keith, 6’2” freshman, Cleveland State (20.5 ppg)
National Player of the Week: PF Marshod Gottlieb, 6’9” sophomore, San Diego (38 ppg, 10 rpg, 3 bpg)
National Freshman of the Week: PF Ryan Ashburn, 6’10” freshman, Appalachian State (22.5 ppg)
News: Loyola-Chicago lost point guard Dante Caskill for likely the rest of the season with a broken ankle.
Since we’re at about the halfway point of the conference schedule:
Horizon League Standings:
Butler 8-1
Wisc.-GB 6-4
Wright St. 4-4
Detroit 4-5
UIC 4-5
Wisc.-Mil. 4-5
Loyola-Chi. 4-5
Youngstown St. 3-5
Cleveland St. 2-6
Game 22 Report
Detroit (12-9, 4-5) at Illinois-Chicago (11-10, 4-5)
Monday, February 3, 2003
This time around, let’s meet the man who runs their show:
PG #5 Adonis Harris (6’1”, 152, senior, Carbondale, IL)
10.9 ppg, 7.3 apg (3rd in conference), 3.60 GPA
And there he is with a three-pointer to start the game. This game, like most of them, was back-and-forth to start, neither team getting a clear advantage or being able to grab a big lead. Our foul shooting deserted us early as we missed four of our first six on our way to a 4-for-11 start after nine minutes. We trailed, 17-16.
Detroit’s Paris LaRue, starting for Martin Sanchez, who was hurt in the first meeting between our teams, then hit consecutive threes to extend the lead to 27-20. Jones actually made some foul shots late in the half to cut the deficit to 31-27 at one point, but LaRue came back with a jumper to make it a six-point game again with four minutes left in the half. A Jones 3 got us to 37-33, but we just couldn’t get over the hump in the first half, and it’s 43-36 Detroit at halftime.
LaRue has a game-high 14 so far. Mark Keep has 10 for Detroit. Jones and Jefferson have nine apiece for the Flames. White? Foul trouble. Again. I think I’m only going to start mentioning the times he actually plays.
The good news was LaRue missed his first three shots in the second half. The bad news was we missed every one after the first two for the next four minutes until a three from Cooper cut into their 50-40 lead. A jumper by Correa got us to within four with 12:30 left, but we still kept whiffing on getting that next score.
We finally got it on a beautiful pass from Correa to Fields, who hit a layup to make the score 52-50. But Harris hit a jumper of his own. Then Jefferson came back with a three and made it 54-53, but LaRue rebounded his own missed three and slammed it home. Fields scored on a putback, but Oliver Sanders (who we’ve managed to hold down tonight) banked a 15-footer to bring the lead back to three at 58-55 with 9:23 to go.
Cooper came back in and scored off a layup, but Detroit had an answer again. White, who had also just come back in, got his fourth foul almost immediately and was sent back to the pine. A frustrated Sanders fouled Cooper on a three… and he missed the third free throw. But it must have woken Oliver up, because he then scored five straight points. With five minutes left, the lead is 71-63. If he gets hot, this game is as good as lost.
Four points from Jefferson got us back to within five with just under four minutes left. White returned, and he played like a man possessed, ripping down rebounds and scoring five points on three possessions to keep us in it, then Cooper hit a three with 38 seconds to go to pull us to a one-point gap. 76-75! White fouled out four seconds later, and we went small with Cooper, Jefferson, Correa, Jones and Williams. But Detroit’s Brandon Pride missed the front end of a one-and-one, and Correa got the rebound and called time.
Twenty-two seconds left, down one. What to do? Mills elected to put the ball in Cooper’s hands and let him figure it out. It’s his job as the point guard, right? Right. Well, he can’t be blamed for this — Correa lost the ball out of bounds. We fouled Harris, who made both shots, and we’re down three with four seconds left. Jefferson got the inbound, found Cooper streaking up the side, fired a bullet pass past half-court, Cooper got it, threw up a desperation heave…
…and HIT IT!
78-78! Overtime, baby!
Detroit won the tip, but Jones got a steal and found Muhammad (playing for the fouled-out White) who drained a three. After a travel call on Detroit’s next possession, Cooper found Muhammad in the same spot, and he hit another three! All Coach Mills can do is shake his head with a bemused smile on his face. “I don’t even stop him anymore,” he said afterwards. “He’s been making ’em; we’ll let him put ’em up.”
A three-point play by Detroit’s David Mason made it 84-83 with 2:20 to go in overtime. He got back to the line and made one of two to tie it, but Detroit got the offensive rebound only to lose it to a Correa steal. What followed was the least exciting end to an overtime period ever, as only one shot got off in the final 1:45.
84-all.
DOUBLE overtime.
I should mention that we’re in the double bonus while Detroit still has a foul to give. Also, Cooper has four fouls.
Jones opened the second overtime period with a jumper. Two minutes went by without any more points until Sanders made two free throws to tie the score again at 86. With 1:22 left, Correa was fouled, but only hit one of two. Williams drew a charge on Harris, and Jones hit a hook shot at the other end to make it 89-86 with 49 seconds left. After a travel on the next possession, Harris fouled out with 31 seconds left by hacking Cooper, who sank both free throws. Two more from Williams sealed it. 93-86 final in double double over overtime.
Game of the year? Uhhhh… no. Way too sloppily played in stretches. Cooper ended up leading us in scoring with 17 points. He also had six assists. Jefferson added 16, Correa 15, Jones 13 (and 11 rebounds), Muhammad 12 thanks to those two threes in the first overtime, and White had 11 before fouling out, though five of those were huge in getting us back into the game at the end. Detroit’s LaRue led all scorers with 24. Sanders and Mark Keep had 15 apiece, and Mason finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
Game 23 Report
Denver (6-15) at Illinois-Chicago (12-10)
Saturday, February 8, 2003
Time for a mid-season out-of-conference game.
The Pioneers are, well, not good. We took a quick 7-0 lead and they called time out. I mean quick. Like, 82 seconds. Even after the time out, Robbie Chase was the only Pioneer who could find the basket, and we were up 15-7 after seven minutes, and a subsequent 10-3 run gave us a 15-point lead.
How bad was it for Denver? Leading scorer Steven Palmer didn’t get a bucket until there was 5:40 left in the first half. He scored eight points in the span, but we still led 42-28 at the half. Nine of our guys played in the first half; eight of them scored. There was a point early in the game where the Pioneers were shooting under 20 percent, but they got sort of hot and checked in at 37 percent.
Little changed as the second half began. Jones took over, scoring nine of our next 18 points as we increased the lead to 60-36 with 13 minutes to play. There really isn’t a whole lot to talk about here. This was just an ass-kicking. 86-65 final. Jefferson led with 19. Jones added 16, and Williams had 14. Cooper had 10 and nine assists. Palmer matched his average with 16 to lead the Pioneers, and Chase added 13. But this was never a contest.
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