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Big Second Half Propels Vikings Past Toledo, 87-63

Big Second Half Propels Vikings Past Toledo, 87-63
Posted: Feb 20, 2010

Feb. 20, 2010

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Contact: Brian McCann

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CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland State used a strong second half effort, scoring 53 points on 74-percent shooting, to run past Toledo, 87-63, on Saturday night in the Wolstein Center in an ESPNU BracketBusters contest.

The Vikings improved to 14-15 this season, while Toledo fell to 3-25.

Norris Cole, playing in his 100th consecutive game at CSU, led five Vikings in double-figures with 18 points and six assists, while Charlie Woods scored a career-high 15 points by hitting all five of his three-point attempts.

D'Aundray Brown added 14 points, hitting 6-of-7 from the field, while Jeremy Montgomery scored 14 points with a career-high eight assists and Tim Kamczyc scoring a career-high 12 points in his first career start.

He was thrust into the starting lineup as sophomore Tre Harmon missed the game after suffering a mild concussion on Thursday night at Milwaukee. Harmon had played in 54 consecutive games.

CSU, playing for the fifth time in the last 10 days, got off to a sluggish start as the Rockets took an 8-2 lead less than three minutes in. However, keyed by an 8-0 spurt, the Vikings came back to take a 26-21 lead with 7:54 left before the Rockets cut their deficit to 34-33 at the half when Kevin Rohner hit a three-pointer just before the final buzzer.

"It took us a little while to wake up and we had to offset that with the press because in the first half, we weren't playing great defense," head coach Gary Waters said. "But we did a much better job in the second half, forcing 10 turnovers. That's what we do and that's how we are going to have success.

"I didn't want to start the game and go hard on defense because we didn't have everyone on the floor, but Toledo started to pick things up and we had to start doing what we do, and that's press. After halftime, I knew we had to come out pressing and that worked for us."

The second half was a completely different story as the Vikings made 20 of their 27 field goal attempts (.741), including all five of their three-pointers.

Toledo scored the first points of the half to take a 36-34 lead, but the Vikings ran off 16 straight points to take control of the game. The Rockets would not get within double figures the rest of the way as the lead swelled to as many as 26 points.

Both teams finished with 20 rebounds as each shot well from the field. CSU connected on 32-of-50 (.640; season-high) from the field, while Toledo hit .568 (25-44). However, turnovers proved to be the difference with the Vikings committing just eight and forcing 18 Rocket miscues that they turned into 26 points.

The Vikings also hit 11-of-17 (.647) from three-point.

The game also marked the return of Lance James to the lineup after the junior missed the previous 21 games with a broken foot. He played 11 second half minutes, scoring seven points with an assist.

"Our bench was aggressive today coming into the game and that comes from having opportunities like they had in this game," Waters said. "This was Lance's first game back and he still isn't 100-percent, but he came out aggressive and ready to play. His strength is taking the ball to the hoop and that's what he was able to do in today's game."

CSU is back in action on Thursday (Feb. 26) when the Vikings host Detroit at 7:30 p.m. It will be the second game of a doubleheader with the CSU women hosting the Titans at 5:00 p.m.