Keith Clemons scored 16 points, Cameron Krutwig added 13 and No. 22 Loyola made a defensive stop in the final seconds to hang on for a 54-52 victory over Valparaiso on Wednesday night at Gentile Arena.
The Ramblers (19-4, 14-2 Missouri Valley) have won 12 of 13 and extended their home winning streak to 20 games. Loyola lost its previous game 51-50 in overtime Sunday at Drake.
Zion Morgan scored 15 points and Ben Krikke and Goodnews Kpegeol had 10 points apiece for Valparaiso (8-15, 5-9).
Loyola won the first meeting 75-39 on Jan. 20 at Valparaiso.
This was Valpo’s third game against a ranked opponent this season — two games against Drake were the others — and the Crusaders led at halftime in each. But they won only one of the three, a 74-57 victory over Drake on Feb. 7.
Lucas Williamson hit a 3-pointer with 3:33 remaining to give Loyola a 52-48 lead, its biggest to that point.
Krutwig hit a jump hook with 1:38 left to make it 54-48.
Kpegeol scored with 1:23 to play to trim the Valpo deficit to four, ending a scoreless stretch of 3:35.
Sheldon Edwards then came up with a steal and drove for a basket with 54.8 seconds remaining to make it 54-52.
Valpo got the ball back with 24.7 seconds to go after forcing a shot-clock violation. After two non-shooting fouls, Valpo inbounded the ball with 13.2 seconds left. Krikke missed a 16-footer and Kpegeol was called for a foul on the rebound with 1.1 seconds to go.
Loyola got off to a slow start offensively. The Ramblers went scoreless for more than seven minutes and made just three of their first 15 field-goal attempts, including 1 of 6 3-pointers.
Valpo took its biggest lead, 29-20, on a 3-pointer by Donovan Clay with 1:18 left in the first half. Loyola, though, ended the half with back-to-back 3s by Williamson and Aher Uguak to pull to 29-26 at halftime.
Loyola is off for eight days before hosting Southern Illinois in back-to-back games Feb. 26 and 27.