Second Unit Provides Major Lift in Rout of Eastern Illinois
The Valparaiso University men’s basketball team’s mantra of “strength in numbers” was on full display on Sunday as the Beacon bench made a significant impact in an 81-53 drubbing of Eastern Illinois at the Athletics-Recreation Center. Valpo started its three-game multi-team event on a winning note against its former Mid-Continent Conference foe thanks in part to a team-high 19 points from Tyler Schmidt (Valparaiso, Ind. / Victory Christian Academy) and 16 from freshman Justus McNair (Joliet, Ill. / Joliet West).
How It Happened
- Points were hard to come by in the early going as Valpo led 4-2 up until a traditional 3-point play by Jefferson De La Cruz Monegro (LaSalle, Quebec, Canada / Orangeville Prep [Western Michigan]) lifted the edge to five with 14:20 left in the first half.
- After a low-scoring first eight minutes, Valpo led 11-6 at the under-12 media timeout. Five straight points by McNair including a triple built the lead to 11 at 19-8 with 9:53 left in the first half.
- The Beacons faced adversity as Eastern Illinois went on a 12-0 run to take a 20-19 lead with 5:38 left in the half. Valpo recovered as Schmidt and Darius DeAveiro (Kanata, Ottawa, Canada / Orangeville Prep) both hit 3s in the final stretch of the first half, helping the Beacons enter the locker room with a 35-29 lead despite shooting just 3-of-17 (17.6) percent from long range and 9-of-32 (28.1 percent) from the floor.
- The Panthers were within four with 17:53 on the second-half clock, but Valpo scored the next 10 points – a run that featured two triples by McNair and finished with a second-chance basket by Kaspar Sepp (Tartu, Estonia / Fairmont Academy) that bolstered the lead to 48-34 with 13:41 to play.
- After leading by 16 with just under 12 minutes to play, Valpo went on another run – this time rattling off 12 straight points – to provide a final dagger. That run finished with a DeAveiro 3 at 9:15 that made it 66-38.
- The lead reached as many as 33 before 28 was the final margin. Valpo outscored Eastern Illinois 46-24 in the second half, turning around the shooting numbers by going 50 percent both from the floor (15-of-30) and from the 3-point arc (7-of-14).
Inside the Game
- Schmidt turned in a flawless shooting performance, going 4-of-4 from the floor, 2-of-2 from 3 and 9-of-9 from the free-throw line while totaling 19 points in 23 minutes and posting an eye-popping plus-minus total of +42.
- Schmidt became the first player nationally to go perfect from both the floor and the free-throw line with at least four field-goal attempts and at least nine free-throw attempts this season. The last player to do so nationally was Josh Cohen of Massachusetts on Dec. 23, 2023 vs. Portland and the last Missouri Valley Conference player with a similar stat line was Wichita State’s Fred VanVleet on Feb. 19, 2014 at Loyola (6-6 FG, 10-10 FT).
- The 28-point cushion marked Valpo’s most lopsided win over a Division-I opponent in over seven full years, dating back to Nov. 19, 2017 vs. Southeastern Louisiana (W 83-50).
- McNair’s 16 points came on 5-of-8 shooting including a 4-of-6 performance from 3-point land.
- Sepp squeezed 11 boards to go along with seven points and three assists, taking home the team’s Grit Award. Six of his rebounds came on the offensive glass, helping Valpo own a 46-31 rebounding edge. Sepp finished a rebound shy of his career high of 12, which came on Dec. 6 of last season at Central Michigan.
- Sophomore Cooper Schwieger (Overland Park, Kan. / Blue Valley Southwest [Link Year]) pulled down seven rebounds and has at least six in all five games this year.
- Valpo’s depth was on display as the lopsided win came despite no starters scoring in double figures.
- The Beacons continued their stellar free-throw shooting, a season-long trend. They went 23-of-25 (92 percent) at the stripe, a season high. Valpo has shot 79 percent or better at the foul line every game this year and owns a glowing team free-throw percentage of 85.1 on the young season.
- Valpo owns back-to-back wins for the first time since Nov. 21, 2023 vs. Western Illinois and Nov. 25, 2023 vs. Southern. The Beacons will seek their first three-game winning streak of the Roger Powell Era on Wednesday.
- This marked the first matchup between Valpo and EIU since the Panthers left the Ohio Valley Conference after the 1996 season. Valpo extended its head-to-head winning streak to nine dating back to Feb. 27, 1993.
