GREEN BAY, Wis. – Anton Grady notched his seventh double-double in league play and Trey Lewis scored seven of his game-high 21 points in overtime as Cleveland State won at Green Bay, 66-61, in overtime on Friday night in front of a national television audience.
The win improves the Vikings to 17-11 overall and 11-3 in the league, one-half game behind first place Valparaiso (11-2). The Phoenix fell to 21-7 overall and 10-4 in the league.
The Vikings' handed Green Bay its first home loss of the season (12-1) and won in Green Bay for the first time since the 2010-11 season.
Grady finished with 20 points, 11 rebounds and two blocked shots, while Lewis added seven rebounds and three assists. Lewis also reached the 1,000 point mark for his career, becoming the third CSU player to reach the mark this year (Lee & Grady). Lewis has 908 points at CSU after scoring 111 points in his one season at Penn State.
Charlie Lee tallied 12 points, six assists and five rebounds, while Kaza Keane notched seven points, four rebounds and three assists.
Greg Mays led the Phoenix with 19 points and Keifer Sykes had 18.
The Vikings trailed by six points (50-44) with five minutes left, but four points each by Lewis and Grady gave CSU a 52-50 lead with 2:24 left. Sykes answered with a layup on the other end to knot the contest at 52-52 before Lee came up with the biggest shot of the night.
With the shot clock winding down, Lee threw up a 30-footer that banked in as the shot clock expired, giving the Vikings a 55-52 lead with 1:18 left. Sykes answered with a quick layup on the other end and after a CSU turnover, Carrington Love split two free throws to knot the game at 55-55 with 32 seconds to play.
The Vikings had a chance to win in regulation, but Grady's jumper was long and the Phoenix rebounded with 0.5 seconds left to give them one final chance, but the inbounds pass sailed out of bounds, giving CSU another shot.
However, Grady couldn't handle a pass near the basket, sending the game into overtime.
In the extra session, Lee hit two free throws and Lewis drained a three-pointer to give CSU a 60-55 lead three minutes into overtime. After two Sykes free throws, Lee found Lewis on a backdoor cut to push the lead back to five and Mason and Lewis both hit two free throws to seal the win.
The Phoenix scored the first four points of the game, but CSU responded with a 10-2 run, capped by a Charlie Lee three-pointer four minutes in that forced an early Green Bay timeout. The CSU lead reached as many as eight points (17-9) midway through the first half on an Andre Yates driving layup.
But the Phoenix used a 17-8 run, capped by a four-point play by Greg Mays, to take a 26-25 lead with 4:29 left in the half and took a one-point lead (33-32) into the locker room at halftime.
CSU finished 25-of-55 (.455) from the field and out-rebounded the Phoenix, 36-35.
The Vikings will play their final regular season road game of the season on Sunday (Feb. 22) when CSU travels to Milwaukee for a 3:30 p.m. EST game. The game will be broadcast live on the American Sports Network and streamed live at www.AmericanSportsNet.com.
The game will also be broadcast live on AM 1420 WHK and AM 1320 WOBL.
