Feb. 5, 2009
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Contact: Brian McCann
CHICAGO, Ill. - Freshman Jeremy Montgomery celebrated his first return to his native Chicago by scoring a career-high 21 points, including a three-pointer with 27 seconds left that gave CSU the lead for good as Cleveland State rallied to defeat UIC, 66-63, on Thursday night in the UIC Pavilion.
The Vikings scored the final seven points of the game to come from four points down with 64 seconds left.
The victory ran CSU's current winning streak to three games, improving the Vikings to 16-8 overall and 7-5 in Horizon League play. UIC slipped to 10-12 overall and 2-9 in league action.
Norris Cole added 12 points and five assists for CSU. Robo Kreps led four UIC players in double figures with 19 points while Scott VanDermeer narrowly missed a triple-double with 13 points, 10 rebounds and eight blocked shots.
"This was a big win for us tonight," CSU head coach Gary Waters said. "I told the team that we were going to play a majority of our remaining games this year on the road and that if we want to achieve our goals, we were going to have to figure out a way to win on the road. Tonight was a good first step.
"We got down in the second half because we got away from playing defense the way we are used to. Once we refocused, we were able to take away the things that allowed UIC to get the lead and that helped us come back."
"Returns" was the word of the night for the Vikings as not only did Montgomery stand out in his return to Chicago, but sophomore D'Aundray Brown also returned to the lineup after missing the last eight games with a stress fracture in his rib cage. Although he was held to just two points, Brown grabbed a season-high 10 rebounds, had three assists, one steal and seemed to be on the floor fighting for loose balls for most of his 21 minutes played.
"We are a different team without D'Aundray and tonight's game showed how important that he is to us," Waters said. "He is our energy guy because he does so many little things on the court."
The Vikings seemed like they were headed to a fourth straight road league loss when the Flames ran off 11 of the first 13 points in the second half to take a 44-33 lead with 17:17 left.
The game bounced back and forth for the next five minutes until the Vikings made the first of several runs.
Down 50-40 with 12:36 remaining, CSU ran off eight straight points on a three-pointer by Montgomery, a pair of baskets inside by Norris Cole and one of two free throws by J'Nathan Bullock, to trail 50-48 with 9:38 left.
Four straight points from VanDermeer would push the lead back out to six (54-48) with 8:38 left.
Defense helped the Vikings pull closer. Trailing 56-50, Brown stripped the rebound away from VanDermeer following a missed shot at the UIC end and started a fast break that ended with Cole slamming the ball home with his left hand.
On the ensuing possession, Tandy threw a lob to Brown from near mid-court that Brown banked it in to pull CSU to within 56-54 with 4:35 left.
The game would be decided in the final minute.
Down 63-59 with 1:04 left, Montgomery knocked down a short jumper with 46 seconds left to pull CSU to within two. The Vikings pressed the inbounds and Kreps lost control of the ball out of bounds near mid-court.
CSU worked the ball around the perimeter, finding Montgomery, who was five-for-seven from three-point in the game, open on the right wing and he knocked down the trey to give the Vikings a 64-63 lead with 27 seconds left, their first lead since late in the first half.
UIC had a couple of chances to come back, but Tori Boyd missed a jumper with nine seconds left and VanDermeer was called for traveling after collecting his 10th rebounds of the game.
The inbounds went to Bullock, who was promptly fouled and made both free throws with seven seconds left to push the Viking lead to 66-63.
UIC came back but Mayo's 25-footer with three seconds left that could have tied the game was off the mark, giving the Vikings the win.
"This wasn't one of our best defensive efforts of the year, but when the time came for our team to step up and shut UIC down, we were up for the task. That was the difference in the game."
The Vikings shot .462 from the field for the game (24-52) and limited the Flames to .412 shooting (21-51), including just .238 (5-21) in the final 17 minutes of the game.
Both teams shot well from three-point with CSU going 7-for-19 (.368) and UIC making eight of 18 (.444).
The Vikings led for the first 18 minutes of the first half before UIC caught them and took a narrow 33-31 lead at the break.
Leading 5-4, CSU scored consecutive Chris Moore baskets inside from Cedric Jackson to push the lead to 9-4 with 14:41 left.
A Rob Eppinger layup trimmed the lead to 9-6 before Jeremy Montgomery scored nine straight CSU points on three three-pointers.
The first trey, with 11:25 left, gave the Vikings their largest lead of the half, 12-6.
Eight first half turnovers however hurt CSU as Montgomery's final trey, coming with 8:06 left, broke a 15-15 tie.
The Vikings were able to maintain the lead, going up 20-15 with 7:35 left on a Moore basket over 7-1 UIC center Scott VanDermeer.
A 6-0 UIC run - on a layup by Josh Mayo and a three-pointers from Robo Kreps -- gave the Flames a 31-29. The Vikings would tie it on a pair of Montgomery free throws, but Mayo countered with two free throws with 26 seconds left to take the halftime lead.
That lead would quickly grow at the start of the second half as back-to-back treys by Kreps and five points from VanDermeer in the opening three minutes put the Vikings down by double-digits.
The Vikings remain in Chicago to continue Horizon League play when they take on Loyola on Saturday (Feb. 7) beginning at 3:00 p.m. CST (4:00 p.m. Cleveland) in a game that will be televised throughout Ohio on SportsTime Ohio.
