Whitaker Hits Game Winner as Valpo Beats Indiana State on Photo Finish

Whitaker Hits Game Winner as Valpo Beats Indiana State on Photo Finish

The Valparaiso University men’s basketball team is winning the close games.

That is everything in the Missouri Valley Conference, a league where parity reigns supreme and most games go down to the wire.

On Sunday afternoon, the Beacons had a chance for the go-ahead shot late and missed. Then they missed again. And again. But the grit and resilience of the team showed through as after each miss, Valpo secured the offensive rebound. With 8.8 seconds left, senior Brody Whitaker (Greencastle, Ind. / University of Indianapolis [Marian]) drained a jumper from near the free-throw line, putting Valpo ahead 76-75. The Beacons came up with the final stop in the closing seconds, holding on for a stressful but exhilarating one-point win.

Early in the game, senior Owen Dease (Evansville, Ind. / Evansville Reitz [Texas A&M Corpus Christi]) reached the 1,000-point milestone for his collegiate career.

How It Happened

• The Beacons raced out to the lead with the first five points including an early 3 from Whitaker.
• After that, the game went back-and-forth as a one-possession battle for the next stretch of play. After a 22-22 deadlock with 10:39 left in the half, Dease hit a 3 to put the Beacons ahead 25-22, and then Whitaker swished one from distance as part of an 8-0 run that put Valpo ahead 30-22 with 8:17 left in the opening half.
• A dunk by Sader Servilus (Montreal, Quebec, Canada / Fort Erie International Academy) got the lead back to eight a moment later.
• Indiana State fought to within three at 36-33 with 5:41 on the first-half clock, but a setback jumper by Justus McNair (Joliet, Ill. / Joliet West) boosted the lead back to eight at the 3:32 mark.
• The Beacons went into halftime leading 49-43 after shooting at a red-hot 67 percent clip over the opening 20 minutes including 5-of-7 from 3. The Sycamores shot at a high clip as well, holding a field-goal percentage of 56.7 at the intermission. Dease (13) and McNair (12) combined for 25 first-half points.
• Whitaker hit two 3s early in the second half, building the Valpo advantage to double figures at 55-45. Indiana State got back within four at the 15:31 mark and one at the 14:10 mark.
• Whitaker drained another 3 with 9:18 to play that stretched the lead to six, then a second-chance bucket by JT Pettigrew (Lisle, Ill. / Bolingbrook) made it a 70-62 game with 8:21 to go.
• The Sycamores used a 9-0 run to surge ahead 71-70 with 4:31 remaining. A basket by Shon Tupuola (Brownsburg, Ind. / Brownsburg [Saint Mary-of-the-Woods]) made it 72-71 in favor of the hosts, but Indiana State retook the lead with a dunk at the 3:01 mark. A tip-in by Ian Scott put the Sycamores up 75-72 with 2:17 to go.
• After a missed 3 by the Beacons, Pettigrew hauled in the offensive rebound, and made both ends of a one-and-one to slim the Sycamore lead to one with 2:01 remaining. After an Indiana State shot clock violation, a missed layup by the Beacons gave Indiana State the lead and the ball with a minute to go.
• The Sycamores misfired on a 3 to beat the shot clock with 36 seconds remaining, and then the frantic sequence to close the game ensued, with Valpo securing three offensive rebounds before the fourth shot of the possession went through the net with Whitaker giving Valpo the late lead. A shot and a tip-try to beat the buzzer were both off the mark for the Sycamores.

Inside the Game

• Dease’s milestone basket came on a 3-pointer with 9:39 left in the first half, pushing into four figures in scoring for his collegiate career. He became the first player to score his 1000^th collegiate point in a Valpo uniform since Kobe King in January 2023. Dease finished the day with 1,007 points including 362 this season at Valpo. The rest came over three years at Texas A&M Corpus Christi.
• This marked the 100^th meeting between Valpo and Indiana State, making the Sycamores just the third opponent that Valpo has played 100 times, joining Evansville and Butler.
• Whitaker finished with 21 points, surpassing his previous season high of 19 set on Jan. 10 at Murray State. The veteran drained five 3s on Sunday, setting a season high and tying a career high.
• Whitaker has scored at least 13 points in each of his last three games.
• Pettigrew finished with 13 points, a team-high eight rebounds and a team-high six assists. He has secured at least eight rebounds in four straight games and has scored at least 14 points in three straight contests.
• With his eight rebounds on Sunday, Pettigrew is up to 179 for his career, surpassing Lubos Barton (1998-99, 178) for the second most by a freshman in program history. Pettigrew needs five to tie and six pass Raitis Grafs (1999-00, 184) for the freshman rebounding record.
• Pettigrew’s six assists doubled his previous career high of three. He became the first Valpo player with a 14-point, eight-rebound, six-assist game since Ryan Broekhoff on Nov. 20, 2011 vs. Duquesne. Pettigrew became just the 20^th freshman nationally to post that stat line this season. Prior to this year, no MVC freshman had a 14-8-6 game since 2017, but this season it’s happened three times – Evansville’s Leiff Moeller twice and Pettigrew on Sunday.
• Dease tallied 13 points, his fifth double-figure scoring output in his last six games.
• McNair made it four Beacons in double figures with 12 points on an efficient 5-of-7 shooting. He drained two of his three 3-point attempts on his way to reaching double figures for the fourth time in his last six games.
• Tupuola corralled seven rebounds, his 12^th time this season with at least seven.
• Both teams shot at a high clip with Valpo at 51.8 percent and Indiana State at 54.4 percent. Valpo made eight 3s to Indiana State’s four, but the Beacons were just 10-of-21 at the free throw line.
• The rebounding battle was significant, as Valpo owned a 32-28 edge on the glass including 15-9 on the offensive boards, leading to a 15-11 edge on second-chance points.
• Valpo’s bench outscored Indiana State’s bench 21-11.
• The game featured five ties and 10 lead changes.
• All five Indiana State starters scored in double figures and nine total players in the game reached double figures.
• Valpo’s last five wins have all been by seven points or fewer including two games against Indiana State that were both one-possession games. Sunday marked Valpo’s first win by the slimmest of margins this season, as the Beacons fell 78-77 vs. Belmont in the only other one-point game this year. Valpo’s last one-point win was March 7, 2025 in the MVC quarterfinal vs. UNI.
• Valpo owns a .500 record through exactly 16 Missouri Valley Conference games for the first time since also holding an 8-8 mark through 16 Valley games in 2019-2020.  
• Valpo has clinched its second-highest league win total since joining the MVC and moved to within one win of matching the 2019-2020 conference win total for Valpo’s most since joining the league.
• Valpo picked up its 14^th regular-season victory, surpassing last season’s regular-season win total and moving to within one of tying last season’s overall win total (including two wins at the conference tournament).
• The Beacons have clinched their highest regular-season win total (not counting league tournament games) since 2019-2020 (16).
• Valpo now has 11 home wins, surpassing last season’s home win total and representing the team’s highest win total at the ARC since the 2019-2020 season (12).
• Valpo improved to 3-0 against instate conference foes this season with one game remaining (at Evansville).  
• Whitaker hit Valpo’s first game winner in the final 10 seconds of a game since All Wright on Feb. 19, 2025 vs. Missouri State.

Up Next

Valpo (14-13, 8-8 MVC) will host Bradley on Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Athletics-Recreation Center