Ramblers rally past Milwaukee

J.R. Blount scored 23 points and sparked a second-half rally that carried eighth-seeded Loyola to a 57-51 victory over No. 5 seed host Milwaukee in the Horizon League tournament on Tuesday night.

The Ramblers (12-18), who have won three of their last four games, will play Illinois-Chicago on Friday night in a second-round game at Buttler Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Tracy Robinson added 13 points for Loyola.

The Panthers (14-16) were led by Ricky Franklin with 17 points and Deion James with 14.

Milwaukee's Jason Averkamp nailed a 3-pointer with 58.6 seconds left to cut Loyola's lead to 52-51. But Ross Forman put in a short jumper with 27.6 seconds remaining to boost the Rambler lead to 54-51, and Loyola went on to win by 6.

Milwaukee led 35-30 after a basket by Franklin. But Loyola, getting all its points from Blount, outscored the Panthers 9-2, and his basket with 9:24 remaining gave the visitors a 39-37 lead.

The lead kept changing hands the rest of the way. Andy Polka's basket with 3:04 left put the Ramblers up 49-48, and Forman followed with another score for a 3-point lead.

Loyola led 19-17 after a tight first half in which both teams had trouble scoring.

Ball St. 69, Northern Illinois 63: Anthony Newell scored 23 points, including 9-of-18 shooting from the field, as Ball State beat Northern Illinois in Mid-American Conference play at Muncie, Ind.

Ball State (6-22, 5-10) won despite being outshot from the field and outhustled in the paint by the Huskies. The Cardinals had only 25 field goals while NIU (6-20, 3-11) had 27, and the Huskies outscored Ball State in the paint 42-20. NIU also had a 37-31 edge in rebounding.

Darion Anderson scored 24 points to lead NIU, including 10-of-18 shooting from the field.

Peyton Stovall had 13 points and 10 rebounds and Laron Frazier scored 10 points for Ball State, which led 32-30 at the break.