Valparaiso

Butler, with legitimate Elite Eight aspirations, should be the dominant force in the Horizon. An infusion of Juco talent and returning injured players should help the quality of play throughout the league.

DAYTON - It took reserve player Copper land going 6-6 from the field and a 22-27 effort in the second half from the foul line for Wright State to beat Valparaiso 68-56 in the first round of the Horizon League Championship.

Well it also took Wright State's stellar defense and Scott Grote's career high at Wright State of 19 points too, to get the Raiders into the quarterfinal game on Friday.

2009 Speedway Horizon League Men's Basketball Championship

Tuesday, March 3 / First Round / at campus sites
Game 1 - #10 Detroit at #3 Cleveland State, 7 p.m. ET (HLN)
Game 2 - #7 UIC at #6 Youngstown State, 7 p.m. ET (HLN)
Game 3 - #9 Valparaiso at #4 Wright State, 7 p.m. ET (HLN)
Game 4 - #8 Loyola at #5 Milwaukee, 8 p.m. ET (HLN)

DAYTON – When two offensively challenged basketball teams shoot under 40 percent for the game one of the teams is going to win ugly and tonight it was Wright State. They played a little less ugly than Valparaiso as they won 68-58 in front of 5618 fans at the Ervin J. Nutter Center.

But it took a lot of effort for the Raiders to pull this win out.
With Valpo up 28-27 at halftime the Raider’s defense gave up a 3-pointer to Urule Igbavboa to go down by four points at 31-27. Less than a minute later Igbavaboa put in a layup to increase the Crusader lead to 33-27.

Editor's Early Preview (12/15):

Its hard to imagine UNC losing a game before January 11th at the earliest (when they head to Wake Forest), and this game could get ugly. Valpo is just a ho-hum Horizon League that doesn't bring anything particularly exciting or interesting to the table. Another glorified practice for Roy's Heels.

Full preview from the GameNight staff coming soon! Post your thoughts in the GameThread below: