Take that
Lavender’s late basket helps Crusaders stop SIU, his former team
Valparaiso’s Deion Lavender helped seal a big Missouri Valley road win against his former team.
The graduate transfer guard, who played his freshman season at Southern Illinois, scored off a feed from Derrik Smits with 12.6 seconds left Saturday as the Crusaders topped the Salukis 65-61.
With nine points and four assists, Lavender was among a range of contributors for Valparaiso (11-6, 4-0), which played without leading scorer Ryan Fazekas.
Coach Matt Lottich pointed to Lavender’s performance as Valparaiso remained alone atop the conference standings.
“To have Deion Lavender pretty much ice the game, it was pretty special,” Lottich said. “It meant something to him.
“And he’s also from around here. He had a lot of family in the crowd. Standing in the coach’s box, you look up and see a sea of SIU red and this family of yellow — Deion’s family supporting him. It’s always special any time you play at home. I was really proud of him.”
A little more than an hour before the game, Valparaiso announced junior guard/forward Fazekas would be sidelined against the Salukis (9-8, 2-2).
The Marquette graduate suffered a right ankle injury in Tuesday’s win against Bradley. Lottich again described Fazekas as “day to day.”
Smits led Valparaiso with 16 points and eight rebounds. Javon Freeman had 11 points, and Markus Golder added 10 points.
The Crusaders overcame Kavion Pippen’s 23 points and eight rebounds and Armon Fletcher’s 13 points and 10 rebounds.
“It was a special win,” Lottich said. “How talented SIU is and how well-coached they are, and
that was evidenced by the way they didn’t quit. I’m glad the game wasn’t two minutes longer. But we played tough, we played gritty.”
Smits, who had 14 points in the second half, scored on a sweeping move around Pippen to give the Crusaders their largest lead at 59-46 with 6:34 left.
But the Salukis chipped away, closing to 61-58 with 2:54 left. Golder answered with a dunk to make it 63-58 with 2:32 left.
Fletcher made the sec- ond of two free throws with 39.1 seconds left to draw the Salukis to 63-61.
But the Crusaders patiently executed on their next possession. Lavender threw the ball into the post to Smits, with the junior center threading a feed to a cutting Lavender.
“It was a big-time pass,” Lottich said. “It’s something Derrik can do well. We wanted to try to get the ball inside — Derrik was playing well in the second half and getting a lot of attention. Deion’s man turned his head and Derrik made a great pass.”
Valparaiso, which trailed by as much as 17-10 before particularly picking up its defense, plays Tuesday at Loyola (10-7, 3-1), last season’s conference champion and the preseason favorite.
“We understand more of what it takes to win,” Lottich said. “But we’re day to day with this group. And that’s the way you have to be.
“We’re demanding a lot of them — be gritty, guard, play for one another. They’re buying into that.”