A late-game stumble by Green Bay against Northern Kentucky, combined with a sweep last week, was all Oakland needed to take a half-game lead in the Horizon League standings. With two weeks to go in the season, the Golden Grizzlies are already guaranteed a first-round bye and will look to sew up a higher spot at the end of this week.
As for the remainder of the conference, it’s a wide-open fight in the middle of the pack, with each win more critical than the last. While nothing will likely be settled before the final weekend, it certainly won’t be boring. All times ET and on ESPN+.
Thursday, February 22nd
Oakland at Robert Morris, 7pm: To eliminate Youngstown State from regular season championship considerations, the Golden Grizzlies will need to win two of its last three games. Fortunately for Oakland, those three are against teams the Grizz has already beaten. The Colonials, having been clobbered once again by Wright State, continue to struggle and need to win out to even have a chance of not going on the road in the first round. Oakland will make that task extremely difficult, as the Golden Grizzlies are firing on all cylinders down the stretch, including from beyond the arc, where Jack Gohlke has been every bit the assassin that Greg Kampe hoped for when he signed him.
Cleveland State at Northern Kentucky, 7pm: Getting into championship mathematics, this contest not only is important for the two teams currently tied in the league standings, but also at the top of the heap, as the Norse swept the Phoenix while splitting against Oakland. Beyond that, NKU will seek to make up for the last-second loss to Milwaukee at home, where the Norse have a clear advantage over a Vikings squad that has struggled on the road. The key for CSU will be to find a second option behind Tristan Enaruna, who has made it a habit of scoring 20+ points in games.
Wright State at Detroit Mercy, 7pm: The Raiders were well on their way to rolling the Titans in the first contest, and then, for some reason, they let their foot off the gas and, as a consequence, allowed Detroit Mercy to get back into the game. Wright State will need to learn from this nearly-fatal mistake and also rely on its frontcourt, Brandon Noel and AJ Braun, to overwhelm the undersized Titans and negate what Jayden Stone and Marcus Tankersley did to the Raiders in the first match-up.
Friday, February 23rd
Purdue Fort Wayne at Green Bay, 7pm: The Mastodons had an opportunity to knock Oakland down a peg and didn’t last week. Now, PFW looks to do the same thing against the Phoenix, who were felled by Northern Kentucky, thwarting its opportunity to stay on top of the standings. Noah Reynolds, who struggled with an illness, should be back at full strength and likely will cause the Mastodons some headaches. Add in the change of venue for Green Bay to the more intimate Kress Center, and a likely raucous crowd could provide the Phoenix with an extra advantage.
Youngstown State at Milwaukee, 8pm: For the Penguins to even have a shot at the top seed, they will have to sweep their final games, two of which are part of the Wisconsin road trip that has proven arduous for every conference team. The Panthers, for their part, are getting used to playing close games down the stretch, which included the first tilt against YSU, when the Penguins prevailed in overtime. Milwaukee will look to turn the tables on that result at home, but Youngstown State with its depth will have something to say about that, to be sure.
Sunday, February 25th
Cleveland State at Robert Morris, 2pm: The bad news for the Vikings is that, as mentioned previously, they’ve struggled on the road. The good news, at least in the case, is that CSU has bullied the Colonials at the UPMC Events Center in recent memory. And with seeding at stake for the Vikings, they’ll look to ride on Enaruna’s hot hand once again, while, at the same time, try to keep someone like Josh Corbin from heating up from three.
IUPUI at Northern Kentucky, 2pm: Nobody is really sure what happened to the Jaguars after the win against Purdue Fort Wayne, but none of it has been good. While the Norse scrapped to a win in Indianapolis in December, these are far and away two different teams now. IUPUI, which has lost by an average of over 20 points per contest during its eight-game slide, will look to keep it close once again. But it looks more than likely that NKU will dominate far more than it did in the first match-up.
Wright State at Oakland, 3pm: If the Golden Grizzlies want to seal the deal on the regular season championship, this will be the game that may put them over the top. And it will be against a Raiders squad whose inconsistency has cost them dearly at times, including in the first tilt against Oakland. The paint will be the big key in this game, as Noel and Braun, who couldn’t find an answer in the first game for Trey Townsend and Buru Naivalurua, will need to figure out what went wrong the first time around.
Youngstown State at Green Bay, 3pm: The Phoenix did something that only Oakland has accomplished this season: beat the Penguins at the Beeghly Center, compliments of a last-second trey by Foster Wonders. Green Bay will be at home this time around and also have the services of Reynolds, something the Phoenix didn’t have in the first game. YSU needs to figure out a way to get out in front early and stay in front, something that the Penguins couldn’t do at home against Green Bay.
Purdue Fort Wayne at Milwaukee, 3pm: The Mastodons had an opportunity to hand the Panthers a loss at the close of their first clash together but couldn’t get the shot to fall. Now, Purdue Fort Wayne, desperate to get out of the bottom half of the standings, need a good showing in Milwaukee, where BJ Freeman, who scored 26 in the first contest, will be waiting, as well Faizon Fields, who put in a dominant performance on the glass at Fort Wayne.
