Men's Basketball Release #2

Nov. 12, 2007

Complete Release in PDF Format

Horizon League Player of the Week

Josh Mayo, UIC
Junior * Guard * Merrillville, Ind. (Merrillville H.S.)
Josh Mayo won the award for the second time after posting a career-high 34 points in the Flames' season-opening 84-75 victory over Bradley on Saturday. He hit 11 of 17 shots from the field, including three three-pointers, while finishing a perfect nine-for-nine at the charity stripe. The last triple came with a minute remaining, putting the Flames ahead by nine and securing the victory. Mayo added four assists and a team-best five rebounds along with two steals.

Other Top Performances for the Week Ending November 11

Pete Campbell, Butler
Sr. * F * Muncie, Ind.
Campbell hit five three-pointers and scored a team-high 17 points in the Bulldogs' 61-45 victory at Ball State on Friday. Campbell made a triumphant return to his hometown with three treys in a second-half run as Butler took command after Ball State closed within eight points.

J'Nathan Bullock, Cleveland State
Jr. * F * Flint, Mich.
Bullock led the Vikings to a 73-70 victory at South Florida on Friday, setting career highs for points (26) and steals (five) while adding ten rebounds for his eighth career double-double. He was a perfect 13-of-13 at the line, including two with 4.6 seconds left to seal the victory.

Jon Goode, Detroit
Sr. * G * Flint, Mich.
Goode hit the buzzer-beating three-pointer to lift Detroit past Kent State 61-60 on Saturday. It was his fifth trey of the game as Goode paced the Titans with 22 points and five assists. He was perfect in four shots behind the arc after intermission.

Mike Schachtner, Green Bay
Jr. * F * Somerset, Wis.
Schachtner scored a team-high 23 points and pulled down seven rebounds in Green Bay's season-opening 76-75 victory over Oakland on Friday. The Preseason First-Team All-League choice hit eight of 18 shots from the floor and five of six free-throw attempts.

J.R. Blount, Loyola
Jr. * G * Milwaukee, Wis.
Blount's 21 points led Loyola to a 73-57 victory over LeMoyne on Saturday. He hit six of 12 shots from the field and nine of ten at the free-throw line while adding four rebounds, four assists and three steals as the Ramblers won their season-opener for the fourth year in a row.

Torre Johnson, Milwaukee
Sr. * F * Milwaukee, Wis.
Johnson posted a double-double with 16 points and ten rebounds in his Panther debut, leading Milwaukee past Upper Iowa 78-53 on Friday. The transfer from Oklahoma State played only 20 minutes in the one-sided victory and also blocked three shots.

News From Around the League

Bulldogs open state tour with victory
Butler opened the 2007-08 campaign with a 61-45 victory at Ball State on Friday. The Bulldogs, who canned a League-record 321 three-pointers on the way to a 29-7 mark last year, hit eight treys against the Cardinals.

Senior forward Pete Campbell led the way with 17 points, including five triples in his return to his hometown of Muncie, Ind. Three of those came in a second-half run after BSU closed to within 39-31.

The victory was the first for new Butler head coach Brad Stevens, who assumed the reins after Todd Lickliter was named head coach at Iowa in April.

Senior guards A.J. Graves and Mike Green each tallied 11 points in the victory. Graves was four-for-eight from the floor with three treys while adding four rebounds and three assists, while Green led the team with six rebounds and handed out two assists.

Freshman forward Matt Howard made an impressive debut with 14 points along with five rebounds and a team-high four helpers. He was five-of-nine from the field in 26 minutes of action.

Butler faces two more instate rivals this week before departing for the Carrs/Safeway Great Alaska Shootout. BU hosts Indiana State on Wednesday and travels to Evansville on Saturday.

Vikings make statement in Sunshine State
Cleveland State posted a 73-70 victory at Florida State in its season debut Friday. The Vikings defeated a Big East Conference opponent for the first time in program history.

Junior forward J'Nathan Bullock notched his eighth career double-double with a career-high 26 points and ten rebounds. He hit all 13 of his free-throw attempts and also logged four assists and a collegiate-best five steals. It was the eighth time Bullock has hit the 20-point mark in a Viking uniform.

Bullock was only a 59 percent shooter at the line as a freshman but improved to 74.8 percent last season.

Junior guard Cedric Jackson endured early foul trouble in his Cleveland State debut but scored 14 points in the second half to finish with a career-high 18 in the game. Jackson's stat line included three reounds, two steals and an assist.

Junior center Chris Moore also made his Viking debut at Tampa, scoring nine points with five rebounds and two blocked shots in 25 minutes.

The Vikings visit George Mason on Tuesday before returning to Florida for a three-game tournament. CSU takes on Georgia Southern on Friday and challenges Florida State on Saturday prior to the finale on Sunday against Florida Atlantic.

Titans get Goode results in season-opener
Detroit registered a 61-60 victory over Kent State on Saturday. The Titans are now 78-23 all-time in season-openers, including 13-2 under veteran coach Perry Watson.

Senior guard Jon Goode led the way with 22 points including the game-winning three-pointer as time expired. Goode had five triples in the game while also collecting four rebounds and five assists.

The victory was even more impressive considering it came without senior guard Brandon Cotton. The senior guard was reinstated from a team suspension but did not play against the Golden Flashes. Cotton averaged 18.1 points per game last season and was a Preseason First-Team All-League selection last month.

Junior forward Chris Hayes was the only other Titan in double figures with ten points and six rebounds. Hayes made three of four shots both from the field and at the line while canning his only three-point attempt.

Senior guard Zach Everingham posted nine points, five rebounds, five assists and four blocked shots against KSU. Everingham had only four blocks in his 92-game career entering the season. Sophomore forward Nemanja Jokic added nine points and seven rebounds in Saturday's victory.

The Titans have only one game this week, visiting Saint Louis on Wednesday.

Phoenix wins debut, prepares for spotlight
Green Bay edged Oakland 76-75 in its season debut Friday behind 23 points and seven rebounds from junior forward Mike Schachtner. The Phoenix is now 31-8 in home openers through the years.

Friday marked a rare home appearance for the Phoenix, which has only two more dates at the Resch Center before Dec. 22.

Schachtner hit eight of 18 shots from the field and five of his six free-throw attempts against the Golden Grizzlies. His basket with 4:18 remaining put Green Bay ahead to stay, and the Preseason First-Team All-Horizon League honoree added three free throws in the final 23 seconds.

Freshman guard Rahmon Fletcher scored 14 points in his collegiate debut, hitting six of ten shots from the field while also recording three assists and two steals. Junior guard Ryan Tillema was the third Phoenix player in double figures with 11 points, while junior forward Terry Evans posted eight points, seven rebounds and five assists.

Green Bay hits the national spotlight Monday, visiting 2006-07 national runner-up Ohio State in the opening round of the Dick's Sporting Goods NIT Season Tip-Off on ESPN2. The Phoenix faces either Columbia or Delaware State on Tuesday before heading east for Saturday's contest at Massachusetts.

Ramblers keep winning at home
Loyola began the season with a 73-57 victory over LeMoyne on Saturday. Three players scored in double figures for the Ramblers, who forced 20 turnovers and are now 15-1 in their last 16 regular-season non-League contests at the Gentile Center.

Junior guard J.R. Blount scored a game-high 21 points for Loyola, hitting half of his 12 shots from the field and nine of ten tries from the free-throw line while adding four rebounds, four assists and three steals.

Blount has started 37 consecutive contests for the Ramblers, dating back to the 2005-06 season. Loyola is 5-1 in the last two years when he scores 20 or more points.

Sophomore forward Ross Forman made an auspicious Rambler debut, scoring 19 points with five rebounds. The transfer from Wyoming canned seven of ten shots from the field.

Junior forward Leon Young added 14 points with eight rebounds. He has averaged 12.7 points and 9.3 boards in three season-openers at Loyola. Sophomore forward Andy Polka posted seven points and a team-high nine rebounds for the Ramblers.

Loyola has two games on the schedule this week. The Ramblers take on instate rival Eastern Illinois on Tuesday in a re-match of last year's BracketBusters pairing, before hosting Western Michigan on Friday.

Panthers spread the wealth, playing time
Newcomers dominated the highlights in Milwaukee's 78-53 victory over Upper Iowa on Friday. A total of ten players saw at least 10 minutes of action with only senior forward Paige Paulsen (23) playing more than 20 minutes.

Milwaukee is now 7-3 in its last ten season debuts, losing only to Iowa (2000), Wisconsin (2002) and Memphis (2005).

The Panthers' top four scorers were all making their UWM debuts Friday. Freshman forward Tim Flowers scored a team-high 18 points on seven-of-12 shooting, while senior forward Torre Johnson added 16 points, ten rebounds and three blocked shots. Johnson canned six of eight shots from the floor and all four free-throw attempts.

Flowers was the first true freshman to start a season opener for Milwaukee since James Wright started against Iowa in 2000.

Freshman forward Anthony Hill registered ten points and five rebounds off the bench with freshman guard Deonte Roberts contributing eight points.

Milwaukee forced 28 turnovers, recording 20 steals against UIU. The theft count was the third-highest total in the Panthers' Division I history and the most since the 2000-01 campaign.

The Panthers travel to Ball State on Wednesday before closing the week with a Sunday matinee against Northern Iowa.

Flames ride Mayo's shooting past Bradley
UIC scored an 84-75 victory over Bradley in its season opener at the Pavilion on Saturday. Junior guard Josh Mayo scored a career-high 34 points on 11-of-17 shooting with four assists and five rebounds. The 34 points were eight more than his previous collegiate best.

As a team, the Flames shot 54 percent (29-of-54) from the floor including nine-of-13 from three-point range.

Mayo also finished nine-of-nine at the free-throw line and has now made 27 in a row dating back to the start of the 2007 Horizon League Championship. He was 18-for-18 in the League tournament a year ago.

Freshman forward Tori Boyd chipped in with 11 points against Bradley, including two key three-pointers to spark a 9-0 first-half run. Sophomore guard Spencer Stewart was the third Flame in double figures with ten points and six assists.

Junior center Scott VanderMeer blocked five shots. The seven-footer set school and Horizon League records with 111 rejections last season, finishing fifth in the nation with a rate of 3.47 per game. VanderMeer blocked five or more shots ten times during the 2006-07 campaign.

The Flames host Illinois-Springfield on Tuesday before heading to the Virgin Islands for the Paradise Jam. UIC opens that tournament Friday versus Winthrop and will face either Charlotte or Georgia Tech in the next round.

Perfect start for the League
As a group, Horizon League teams posted a 7-0 record last week, including two victories over the Mid-American Conference and one each against the Big East Conference and Missouri Valley Conference.

Two of the circuit's final three teams open play this weekend as League newcomer Valparaiso hosts Grace in the first round of the South Padre Island Invitational on Monday before traveling to IPFW on Thursday. The Crusaders, who return 94 percent of the team's scoring from last season, make their Horizon League debut after a successful 25-year run in the Mid-Continent Conference.

Youngstown State makes its 2007-08 debut Monday night at UCLA, visiting the famed Pauley Pavilion for a nationally-televised (ESPN2) contest to open the O"Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic. YSU meets either UC San Bernardino or Weber State on Tuesday before returning home for a Saturday date versus Lock Haven.

Defending League champion Wright State opens the 2007-08 schedule next Monday versus Coastal Carolina. That is the Raiders' only action before Nov. 28.

The Youngstown State/UCLA game is the second of two ESPN2 broadcasts featuring Horizon League teams on Monday. Green Bay's contest at Ohio State is also scheduled to air on the network.