One of the best moves the Horizon League has ever made was their decision to welcome Valparaiso to the fold this season. The Crusaders helped the conference to a 5-1 mark in games played Sunday and they are 10-1 after routing Chicago State 90-61. The vowel obsessed Samuel Haanpaa hit 10 three-pointers and finished with 32 points to lead Valpo to their eighth straight victory. The Finnish sharpshooter and the rest of Homer Drew's crew will have to be at their best over the next two weeks to keep the winning streak alive. They play at Wisconsin and then travel to Chapel Hill on December 30 in games that could go a long way toward deciding how many Horizon clubs make the Big Dance. Butler will certainly be one of them. A.J. Graves shook off his recent struggles and buried seven threes of his own to lead the #19 Bulldogs to a 79-68 win over Florida State. The win, technically a neutral siter despite being in Indianapolis, puts the loss to Wright State well into the rear-view. Those Raiders had another impressive win, coming back from 16 down to beat Miami of Ohio 58-57. Illinois-Chicago beat DePaul for Windy City bragging rights while their Land of Lincoln compatriots at Loyola knocked off Northern Illinois to round out a great day for the Horizon.
The rest of the winners and losers after the jump.
WINNERS
- Hofstra's Antoine Agudio was the subject of a well-timed feature story in the Sunday New York Times. He scored 30 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead the Pride to a 70-68 win over Charlotte on Saturday. The points were expected, Agudio is D-1's leading scorer, but the rebounds were a sign of how tenacious the 6'3" guard plays every minute of every game.
- Niagra beat St. John's 77-73 for their first road victory against the Red Storm since they were still the Redmen. That win happened in 1963, long before Charron Fisher was even an itch in his father's pants. Didn't stop him from scoring 30 points and grabbing 14 rebounds to spur the Purple Eagles, though.
- Drake and Central Michigan would be higher up on this list if their wins against power conference teams hadn't come against Iowa and Michigan, respectively. Beating Big 10 teams just isn't impressive anymore.
LOSERS
- Drake's win on Friday and an Illinois State win at Bowling Green were the only things that salvaged a poor weekend from the Missouri Valley. Southern Illinois fell victim to Rick Majerus and Saint Louis on the road by a 56-51 count. The Billikens closed with a 13-0 run and, once again, the Salukis were miserable offensively. Witchita State lost 59-56 to Missouri-Kansas City and Missouri State got thumped by Utah. Northern Iowa's win against Wartburg mentioned for the humor generated by Wartburg only.
- Radford tried to play physical with Georgetown in their matchup on Saturday. It resulted in a couple of near brawls and several technicals but not in a competitive game. The Hoyas rolled 110-51.
- We mentioned Central Michigan but the MAC was wack this weekend. Bowling Green and Ball State lost Sunday to finish up a 2-7 weekend. Ball State is now 0-9 on the year, Ohio followed up their upset at Maryland by getting pasted by Kansas and Western Michigan helped no one in conference by losing to IUPUI.
