At Valparaiso

wiu712 · Mon Nov 20, 2023 1:33 pm

WGEM Prediction: Valparaiso 73, Western Illinois 70

meganeck · Mon Nov 20, 2023 3:33 pm

WIU travels to Valpo on Tuesday to play the 2-2 Beacons. Valpo is coached by former Illinois player Roger Powell Jr.

WIU is shooting 57% as a team on free throws and has 47 assists compared to 69 turnovers

WIU is led in scoring by James Dent with 17.8 ppg

This is the first matchup between these 2 schools since Valpo left the Mid-Con

sealhall74 · Tue Nov 21, 2023 12:15 pm

Looks like Valpo is the same old Valpo. Few tall dudes from across the pond. Don't let the ghost of Homer get us down on that court. Was it there that we lost a 3OT battle back in 1995 in the AMCU tournament to NOT earn a trip to the Big Dance. Was not much better for Valpo. Yep, 6 defectors in the league meant no automatic qualifier that year. But after winning this one, Valpo dominated the league for about the next five years or so and had at least one shining moment in the Dance thanks to Homer's son Bryce.

Update: Make that about 10 years of dominiation. The only years they did not go to the Dance were 2001 and 2003.

sealhall74 · Tue Nov 21, 2023 7:50 pm

Pretty ragged half of basketball. Too many turnovers, mostly because of too much dribbling.

wiu712 · Tue Nov 21, 2023 9:07 pm

Valparaiso won the game 73-66

Jesiah West led the Western scoring with 19 points.

15 Western turnovers resulted in 21 Valpo points.

Western had 8 Bench Points while Valpo had 41.

Attendance at Valpo = 1,257

Bball Fan · Wed Nov 22, 2023 10:43 am

Coach was very straight forward to why lost blaming himself for not doing better job of coaching to eliminate turnovers. I think he may need to see if has a better PG option.

sealhall74 · Wed Nov 22, 2023 3:34 pm

Bball wrote:Thu Jan 01, 1970 5:22 am Coach was very straight forward to why lost blaming himself for not doing better job of coaching to eliminate turnovers. I think he may need to see if has a better PG option.

I thought it was an interesting move when they went to zone, he brought in Lamar to sort of post up and direct traffic, and distribute the ball to the perimeter guys. Everyone else's first thought was to dribble the ball all night. He never wasted time dribbling and just made the pass to the open guy.