Jan. 9, 2010
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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland State, which had to overcome too many turnovers and too many whistles on Saturday night, had just the remedy, utilizing the play of too many guards to hold off UIC, 70-63, in the Wolstein Center.
As they had done in wins in the last week over Youngstown State and Loyola, the Vikings started a lineup that featured guards Norris Cole, Trey Harmon, Jeremy Montgomery and D'Aundray Brown and when the quartet was together on the floor, the proved nearly unstoppable for the Flames.
Unfortunately, with Cole playing a season-low 16 minutes before fouling out with 1:13 to play, the four-some was not together enough to put the game away.
All four players scored in double figures with Montgomery leading the way with 17, Brown scoring 13 points with seven rebounds and three steals, and Harmon 12. Cole, who was scoreless in the first half, bounced back to tally 13 in the second stanza.
Jeremy Buttell led all UIC players with 22 points and eight rebounds while Spencer Stewart (11 points) and Zavion Neely (10) each finished in double figures. Robo Kreps, who entered the game averaging 15.5 points, was held to just four points.
After rallying in the final minutes of the first half to tie the game at 33-33 at the break, CSU took control of the game early in the second half, opening up a 55-45 lead before Cole went to the bench with his fourth foul with 9:25 left.
The Vikings pushed ahead, leading by as many as 16, 65-49 with 4:01 left, before the Flames went on a 14-1 run over the next 3:10 to close to within 66-63 with 51 seconds left when CSU center Aaron Pogue fouled out, allowing Chris Buchanan to score an old-fashioned three-point play. The lone Viking point during the stretch came when Cole made one of two free throws, the only miss at the line all night for CSU, with 1:23 left. Ten second later, Cole fouled out.
Cleveland State buckled down after that. Brown and Montgomery each made a pair of free throws and UIC missed three shots and turned the ball over once as the Vikings secured the win.
"Tonight was a good win for us, but we had to play most of the game without Norris and Aaron," Waters said. "It should have been a happy locker room but it wasn't because some of the things that we thought we had grown past popped back up tonight.
"When you are in control of a game and you let a team back in because of your own miscues, it is disappointing. We will continue to work on that and try to not let it happen again. We are much better team than we showed in the last five minutes."
For most of the evening, the Viking offense was a model of efficiency.
CSU shot .511 from the field (23-45), 40-percent from three-point (8-20) and .941 from the line (16-17). After having an assist on just one of their seven baskets, CSU's passing improved as it had assists on 15 of its last 16 baskets.
Aaron Pogue led the passing effort with a career-high five assists and the big man added six points and a game-high eight rebounds.
The Vikings jumped out to a big lead early in the game, scoring the first eight points of the contest and eventually leading 20-13 with 7:17 left. But with Cole on the sidelines with three fouls and two other Vikings with two, UIC went on a 17-2 burst to lead 30-22 with 3:16 left.
CSU countered however, running off 11 of the next 14 points, including a game-tying three-pointer from Charlie Woods with 23 seconds left, to send the teams to the intermission knotted at 33-33.
The win allowed the Vikings to improve to 7-10 overall and 3-2 in league play, good for a fourth place tie with Wright State in the league standings with a 3-2 mark. UIC slips to 5-11 overall and 1-5 in league play.
Cleveland State is next in action when it begins a two-game road swing at defending regular season champion Butler, the team the Vikings defeated to win the 2009 Horizon League Championship, on Thursday, January 14 at 7:00 p.m. in Hinkle Fieldhouse. The Bulldogs are ranked 24th nationally.
