UIC battles Butler but falls short; Loyola prevails

For 24 minutes, it seemed every shot Butler took was going to miss. The Bulldogs, led by freshman Gordon Hayward, kept shooting.

Hayward hit seven 3-pointers and tied his career high with 25 points as No. 17 Butler mounted a second-half comeback for a 59-52 victory over Illinois-Chicago on Saturday at the UIC Pavilion.

Shelvin Mack had 18 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists for the Bulldogs (16-1, 7-0 Horizon League), who overcame a 13-point second-half deficit to win their eighth straight.

Tori Boyd scored 13 points, Robo Kreps had 11 and Scott VanderMeer had 11 points and 10 rebounds for the Flames (9-8, 2-5), who lost for the sixth time in eight games.

"We did our best and played as hard as we can possibly can play," UIC coach Jimmy Collins said. "Butler has a team that has the burning desire to excel. When the going gets tough, they get going. We couldn't meet their toughness down the stretch."

Loyola 71, Valparaiso 56: Justin Cerasoli had a career-high 28 points, and Loyola (11-8, 3-4 Horizon League) beat visiting Valparaiso.

Cerasoli was backed up by J.R. Blount with 15 points and Walt Gibler with 9. Gibler hit all 7 of his free throws and has made 29 of 31 from the line for the season. Aric Van Weelden also had a career high, grabbing 11 rebounds.

Valparaiso (5-14, 2-6) was playing short handed because of a knee injury to leading scorer Urule Igbavboa. Michael Rogers scored 16 points for the Crusaders.

W. Michigan 71, NIU 52: Derek Drews scored a game-high 17 points, including four 3-pointers, leading Western Michigan (6-10, 3-0 Mid-American) over visiting Northern Illinois.

Sean Kowal led NIU (5-10, 1-2) with 14 points, and Sean Smith and Darion Anderson each added 11.