Jan. 15, 2011
Contact: Brian McCann
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - Norris Cole, Trey Harmon and Jeremy Montgomery combined to score 49 points as Cleveland State used a strong defensive effort to get past Youngstown State, 61-51, on Saturday night in the Beeghly Center.
The victory snaps CSU's two-game losing streak and moves the Vikings to 16-3 on the season and 5-2 in Horizon League play, good for third place, a half game behind both Valparaiso and Butler, who are 5-1. Youngstown State slipped to 7-10 overall and 1-6 in league play.
"We needed this win," CSU head coach said. "I didn't think it was a very pretty game, but it was one that we had to get out of the way.
"We didn't play very well offensively, but our defense was there tonight. When we play defense like we did this evening, I don't care how we play on offense, we are going to be a very hard team to beat. It will be good to get home next week for a couple of games and hopefully continue to get back to playing like the team that I know that we are."
Cole led the way again, finishing with 21 points for his 10th 20-point game of the year, while Harmon added 16 points (13 in the second half) and Montgomey 12.
As he has done all season, Cole dominated play. Besides his scoring output, which raised his career scoring total to 1,588 points and allowed him to move past both Theo Dixon (1,572 points) and James Mon adison (1,576) and into fifth place on the CSU career scoring chart, he added seven assists, seven rebounds and four steals. He continues to lead the Horizon League in scoring, assists and steals while ranking among the top 10 in rebounding.
Damian Eargle led Youngstown State with 20 points, going nine-for-16 from the field but just two-for-eight from the line with eight rebounds, while Devonte Maymon added 12 points.
On a night during which CSU uncharacteristically made 17 turnovers (and forced the same number), CSU won the game with rebounding and foul shooting. The Vikings had a 44-32 rebounding advantage, including 16 offensive boards, and made 20 of their 23 free throw attempts (.870). YSU was cold from the strip, making just 11 of 21 attempts (.524).
After leading by seven at the break (21-14), both teams got their offense going in the early part of the second stanza with the Penguins closing to within 32-29 on an Eargle basket in the lane with 14:15 left.
CSU countered with the knockout blow, running of 14 straight points to build a 46-29 lead with 12:06 left.
After a Tim Kamczyc basket off a nice pass from Cole that started the run, Harmon turned up his game a notch, scoring nine straight points. When Montgomery knocked down a 25-foot three-pointer, CSU had a 17-point lead. YSU could come no closer than eight down the stretch.
The primary reason for that was Cole, who took control of the game. He scored 11 of the last 15 CSU points in the final 9:00, including a six-for-six effort from the line in the final 5:00. His performance raised his season total during the final 5:00 of games to 55-for-59 (.932).
For the game, Cole was nine-for-10 from the strip while Harmon was seven-for-eight.
Neither team shot well as the Vikings were 18-for-55 for the night (.327) and five-for-13 from three-point (.385) while YSU could manage just 18-for-50 shooting (.360), including four-for-14 from three-point (.286).
"We gave one of our signature defensive efforts tonight," Waters said. "We defended the heck out of them."
The Penguins opened the game on fire, connecting on their first three shots to take a 7-0 lead just 100 seconds into the game. Their offense would go cold from there, go scoreless for the next 8:17, scoring just one point over the next 12:29 and tallying just seven more points the rest of the half.
The Vikings struggled as well.
CSU responded to the opening YSU run by scoring nine straight points to take a 9-7 lead with 14:01 left. The Penguins would tie the game at 9-9 (11:04) on an Eargle jumper in the lane.
Montgomery would find his shooting touch, running off seven straight Viking points, including a three-pointer with 2:59 left that put CSU ahead, 16-12.
The lead would grow to 21-14 at the break when Cole, who scored seven first half points, knocked down a long trey from the right side with three seconds left.
After playing their last three games on the road, the Vikings return home next week for a pair of league games, hosting Detroit on Thursday (Jan. 20) at 7:30 p.m. and Wright State on Saturday, Jan. 22 at 2:00 p.m.
