In a back-and-forth game that featured 11 lead changes and three ties, it was Valparaiso that had the final say as the Crusaders scored the final eight points to pick up a 71-66 win over Wright State in the Horizon League men's basketball opener for both teams at the Nutter Center Thursday night.

WSU was in control early, using a John David Gardner three and a Vaughn Duggins jumper to go up 24-12 with 7:04 remaining in the first half, but the Crusaders responded with a 20-3 run over the next six minutes, eight coming from Shawn Huff and six by Urule Igbavboa, to go in front 32-27.

A Duggins three trimmed the deficit to two, but Jarryd Loyd connected with Huff on a dunk in the closin seconds to give Valparaiso a 34-30 advantage at the break.

A three followed by a layup by Brandon McPherson extended the Crusader lead to 39-30 a minute into the second half, but back came the Raiders as they scored 14 of the next 16 points, six each from Todd Brown and Jordan Pleiman, to regain the lead at 44-41.

Valparaiso again went up four thanks in part to two Loyd threes, but after a Duggins jumper, two threes from the sophomore guard along with a triple from Scottie Wilson gave Wright State a 55-50 lead at the 9:46 mark.

The Crusaders scored 11 of the next 12 points, including two more Loyd threes, to make it 61-56, only to see the Raiders go up 66-63 with a 10-2 burst, capped off with a Duggins three with 2:37 remaining.

That turned out to be the final points of the night, however, for WSU as a Huff three tied it with 1:05 left and, following a steal, Loyd had a fast-break layup to put Valparaiso in front for good with 31 seconds to play.

Two Igbavboa foul shots at the 14.5-second mark made it a two-possession game and Igbavboa hit another with 3.5 seconds left to round out the scoring.

Valparaiso shot 47 percent overall for the game, including 50 percent in the second half and 42 percent from three-point range, while Wright State was at 40 percent despite hitting 12 of 19 threes for 63 percent.

The Raiders held a slight 33-30 edge on the boards, including a 12-5 differential on the offensive end, which resulted in a 12-0 margin in second-chance points, but the Crusaders made up for that at the foul line where they were 18 of 24 compared to just eight of 12 for Wright State.

Duggins led all scorers with 18 for WSU while Brown had 12 as did Wilson along with seven rebounds. Gardner added nine off the bench while Pleiman had eight points and six boards.

Loyd paced Valparaiso (7-1, 1-0 Horizon) with 18 points off the bench, 14 coming in the second half, while both Igbavboa and Huff each had 16 and Jake Diebler 12.

Wright State, now 2-2 overall and 0-1 in the Horizon League, faces #13 ranked Butler (8-0, 1-0 Horizon) Saturday night at the Nutter Center starting at 7:00.