Red-hot Broekhoff leads Valparaiso past Detroit
By Steve T. Gorches 648-3141 or sgorches@post-trib.com February 2, 2012 11:04PM
Valparaiso's Ryan Broekhoff puts a three pointer to put Valparaiso ahead with 5:40 left to play against Detroit Thursday evening at Valparaiso University. | Jeffrey D. Nicholls~Sun-Times Media
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Updated: March 4, 2012 8:18AM
VALPARAISO — The offense got bogged down at times.
Execution wasn’t exactly precise at other times.
In fact, it was downright sloppy for Valparaiso with 15 turnovers.
But when all else fails, you feed the hot hand and hope he stays hot. On Thursday night at the Athletics-Recreation Center, the hottest hand for the Crusaders was Ryan Broekhoff, who hit 3-pointers from everywhere in leading VU to a 78-73 victory over Detroit.
Broekhoff was 6 of 6 from behind the arc — 3 of 3 in each half for a nice balance — on his way to a career-high 26 points. His previous high was 23 last season at Ohio.
The biggest 3-pointer came with 4:04 left and the game tied at 66-66. He got the ball about three feet behind the arc, hesitated for a second, then tossed up a rainbow that found nothing but net, leading to one of the bigger eruptions from nearly 3,500 fans.
“The ball kind of slipped in my hands a little ... I didn’t want to rush it,” Broekhoff said. “All season I’ve been struggling from 3 (34 percent overall, but only 29 percent in Horizon League play). But I was in one of those frames of mind where everything felt good and they went in.”
Broekhoff started the scoring with a trey on the first possession, then did the same to start the second half, which led to the right mindset for the junior.
“Once the first goes in, you get a little bid more confidence,” he said. “It was wonderful tonight.”
The Crusaders (16-8, 9-3 Horizon) had to fight back from decent-sized deficits multiple times, and a few huge momentum killers. Specifically, seven dunks by Detroit, including a monster jam from Doug Anderson over Kevin Van Wijk off an alley-oop pass with 37.8 seconds left in the first half.
Anderson was fouled and made the foul shot to give the Titans a nine-point halftime lead.
“We’d looked at Detroit on film and thought it was the best they had been playing all year,” Valparaiso coach Bryce Drew said. “They came out and pretty much blasted us in the first half. They were more aggressive and they were executing better than us.
“At halftime I thought our guys really dug in, went out there and played with a lot of heart.”
Drew was especially impressed with the Crusaders’ team defense and boxing out for rebounds after halftime. That wasn’t a strong suit in the first half with Detroit out-rebounding VU 15-8. But it turned around in the second half as the Crusaders finished with two less rebounds than the Titans.
The victory keeps Valparaiso one game behind Cleveland State in the loss column in the Horizon League with another home game against Wright State on Saturday night.
Broekhoff wasn’t the only VU player hitting from long range. Will Bogan drained three of them for nine points, while Jay Harris, Matt Kenney and Richie Edwards each hit one — the team went 12 of 22.
Edwards did plenty of other good things that not only impressed his coach, but himself after having a not-so-memorable game on Saturday when he earned a pair of technical fouls and an automatic ejection in the first half of a win at Milwaukee.
“I wanted to show I was there for my teammates,” said Edwards, who had 16 points and five rebounds on Thursday.
Drew added: “The thing I really love about Richie is that he just loves to play basketball. If you come to our practices, he’s so emotional after making baskets. He just loves to play.”
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