Valparaiso was one of the youngest teams in the country a year ago. The Crusaders are still a young team this year, but they now have their first taste of success in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.
In its second-ever trip to the MVC Tournament, Valpo earned its first win in the tourney in impressive fashion. The ninth-seeded Crusaders handled 8 seed Indiana State 77-55 in the game that tipped off of the 2019 edition of Arch Madness at the Enterprise Center (recently known as the Scottrade Center), the 43rd annual MVC tourney and the 29th straight year it has been held in St. Louis.
Valparaiso (15-17 overall) moved on to a date with top-seeded Loyola Chicago Friday at noon after a victory that could be considered a step in its development. The occasion of winning in St. Louis was not lost on third-year head coach Matt Lottich.
“First I just want to say how nice and special this event is,” said Lottich to lead off his postgame remarks. “This is a first-class tournament. It’s unbelievable coming in here. It feels like an NCAA Tournament game…really proud to have won a game in this tournament.”
A third matchup this season with Indiana State may not have seemed like a recipe for postseason success for Valparaiso, considering the Crusaders lost twice to the Sycamores in the regular season. That included an overtime loss at home just over three weeks ago, plus a 17-point loss at ISU in January.
The Crusaders appeared to be in trouble late in the first half of this one, too, after an early five-point lead had turned into a 24-15 deficit following a Sycamores’ 17-3 run. Tyreke Key, Indiana State’s smooth scoring guard, had 12 points early, and long guard Christian Williams seemed to be everywhere on defense, taking Valpo out of its offense almost single-handedly.
Valpo then authored its own stunning turnaround. The Crusaders finished the half on a 21-5 run and suddenly a nine-point deficit was a 36-29 halftime lead. Junior guard Markus Golder was in the middle of it, scoring 14 points in the opening 20 minutes on a mix of runners off the glass, pull-ups and also making all six of his foul shots.
“We just held our head high,” Golder said of the team’s approach after falling down early. “We knew we were going to stick to our game plan, and it was eventually going to work out. We worked as hard as we could…we just competed, and that’s something we haven’t done in a while.”
Golder, terrific freshman guard Javon Freeman and their backcourt mate Bakari Evelyn would continue to carry the load in the second half, as Valpo would never trail again. Golder scored a team-high 18 points, Freeman added 17 plus seven rebounds and three steals, and Evelyn also chipped in 13 points off the bench, and the three also had big baskets as Valparaiso pulled away after Indiana State closed within six points on two occasions midway through the second half.
The Crusaders also took over inside, with Derrik Smits scoring nine points and adding seven rebounds and helping lead Valpo to a 39-31 rebounding advantage. Smits and fellow center Jaume Sorolla got ISU posts Emondre Rickman and Bronson Kessinger into foul trouble and helped the Crusaders control play inside, to the tune of 38 points in the paint throughout the contest.
Valparaiso’s season has been one of flashes and inconsistency. Part of the reason for the latter has been a heavy dose of injuries. In fact, the Crusaders don’t have their best shooter in St. Louis, as three-point sniper Ryan Fazekas was out with a thumb injury, and Golder and centers Smits and Sorolla also have missed time this year.
Valpo got off to an uneven start out of conference with wins at UNLV and George Washington countered by home losses to High Point and Ball State, but it began MVC play with a flourish, winning its first four games. That success faded, though, to the tune of losses in 10 of the last 12 entering Arch Madness.
“A lot of coaching this team has been in the face of adversity, how do you respond?” said Lottich. “And I think for a lot of this year, there’s been certain instances where we haven’t had that. We haven’t folded, but we put our head down, we think about the previous play, and a lot of the coaching has been ‘move on.’ Dwelling on that doesn’t help us execute down the stretch. And the guys have really bought into it.”
Now the Crusaders will try to be the first team ever in MVC Tournament history to go from the 8/9 game to the semifinals. It’s a daunting task, for No 8 or 9 seed has ever knocked off the No. 1 seed to get past the quarterfinals in the MVC Tournament. Ever.
It’s almost certain Valpo will give Loyola a good game Friday. With an almost absurd consistency, the top seed’s quarterfinal at Arch Madness seems to follow a familiar script: the play-in game winner will give the favorite big trouble for more than a half, sometimes even deep into the second half, before finally tiring or falling victim to No. 1 making the plays late. It regularly creates suspense as the first quarterfinal game of the day goes on, even as time and again the lower seed has still wound up disappointed at the end.
Aside from that, though, the Crusaders had the Ramblers on the ropes in their last meeting on Feb. 10, leading by nine points late in the first half before the game turned late. Trailing 43-34, Loyola scored 14 straight points and held on for a 56-51 win, a deflating loss for Valpo that started a 1-6 finish down the stretch.
In many years, this Crusaders squad might be a classic ‘wait-til-next-year’ team. With as wide-open as the Valley has been this year, though, where even co-champions Loyola and Drake lost six games in conference, a team like Valparaiso most certainly has to view the door as being open.
“Is that the same team that played in the Final Four last year?” Lottich cracked back with a question after being asked if the 20-point win gives him confidence going into a matchup with Loyola. “No, it’s just good for us to get a win. We know that Loyola’s good. They’re well-coached, they’re talented. We’re just going to go, get rest, prep and come to play.”
Twitter: @HoopvilleAdam
