Valparaiso coach Matt Lottich wanted to give freshman Donovan Clay a quick rest.

But the 6-foot-7 guard/forward didn’t need it.

And Clay was proving too valuable in the Crusaders’ win Saturday against Indiana State.

He logged 39 minutes, posting 18 points, four rebounds and two blocked shots.

“It’s just confidence,” Clay said. “Coach has a lot of confidence in me. He tells me to shoot it, and I shoot it.”

Before scoring those 18 points against the Sycamores, matching the second-highest total of his career, Clay went scoreless at Northern Iowa, the only such occurrence in his time with the Crusaders. He has reached double figures in nine of the past 12 games after doing it only once in the first seven.

Lottich mentioned that the “blown assignments” Clay might’ve had even at the beginning of the Missouri Valley season have fallen by the wayside.

“He’s not making those moving forward,” Lottich said of Clay. “It’s understanding what to do. It’s grabbing concepts. It’s a continuing process in his freshman year, and he’s been playing great.”

Clay is averaging 8.5 points and 3.8 rebounds as Valparaiso (10-9, 3-3) prepares to play a conference road game against Missouri State (9-10, 3-3) at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

Bears coach Dana Ford has noticed the contributions from Clay, who entered the starting lineup in the third game after senior guard/forward Ryan Fazekas suffered his left wrist injury.

“Statistically, Valpo is playing very well offensively, and a big part of that is their ability to play Clay — he can be a mismatch problem for some,” Ford said. “To produce at a young age in this league is not easy to do. Having seen him out on the recruiting trail, I knew he was going to be a good Valley player. That was an awesome get by Valpo.”

Offensive outburst: After trailing by as many as 11 points in the first half against Indiana State, Valparaiso broke out for 54 points in the second half to put together the comeback. The Crusaders shot 54.3% (19 of 35).

“That’s probably as good offensively as we’ve played in that second half,” Lottich said.

Sycamores coach Greg Lansing praised the motion offense Valparaiso has installed, a system that has become less common.

“We got up 10, and the guys thought it was going to be easy, and it’s not,” Lansing said. “This is an explosive, talented offensive team that executed at a high level.”

Lansing also was less than pleased with his team’s defense.

“I put on the board before the game, ‘The tougher, more disciplined team would win,’ ” he said. “There’s no doubt that happened. They out-toughed us, especially in the second half. They were more disciplined with their defense and what they were doing.

“I’m really disgusted with how we defended in the second half. That’s really the ballgame. We gave up layup after layup. … We didn’t deserve to win.”

Potential pivot: Valparaiso and Missouri State are among five teams entering this week with 3-3 conference records. A win for the Crusaders could be especially significant, with home teams having gone 21-9 through the first third of the league season.

The Bears were the preseason favorites in the conference, receiving 29 of 44 first-place votes.

“Missouri State has a load of talent. … They’re enormous on the inside, and we’re a little smaller,” Lottich said. “It’s going to be a little problematic. So we’re going to have to execute well, shoot the ball pretty well and guard on the interior.

“We know the challenge that we have ahead of us. They were picked to win our league for a reason.”