Feb. 24, 2011
Final Stats | Quotes | Notes
By: Robert Ivory
CLEVELAND, Ohio- With the chance of retaining the Horizon League lead, the Vikings could not complete the comeback they needed and fell Thursday night at the Wolstein Center to the Milwaukee Panthers, 87-83.
Norris Cole led all scorers with 27, as Trevon Harmon added 22, Josh McCoy had 13 off the bench, and Jeremy Montgomery chipped in with 12.
"They outplayed us in every phase of the game," head coach Gary Waters said. "I thought our kids fought back, but we could not get over the hump. I thought we still had a chance to win the game."
The Vikings had to push back from a 41-32 half time deficit and a 19-point deficit with 11:51 left to play in the game. CSU fought hard and got the deficit down to five with 2:40 to go, but the Vikings could not regain the lead.
"Down the stretch, we turned the ball over twice, we missed two free throws, and gave up three offensive rebounds," Waters said. Those are the three things that I tell the team that a championship team does not do."
Cole scored 19 of his points in the second half and finished with five rebounds and four assists as the Vikings controlled the play in the paint, leading 42-30.
The loss moves the Vikings to 12-5 in the Horizon League and 23-7 overall.
"We are going to keep fighting," Cole said. "Our goals are still the same because we have a bunch of fighters on the team."
CSU shot just 34.3% in the first half, where Milwaukee hit 57.1% of theirs and the Viking were beat on the boards, 37-28 on the night.
Regardless, CSU got within five under five minutes to play, but the Vikes could not get the job done.
"You have to win at home," Waters said. "We did not do that."
Tim Kamczyc led the night off with a three from the right hand side of the arc to give the Vikings the opening points. Milwaukee did answer with five straight points, until Kamczyc found Pogue under the basket. Pogue then dunked home the basket.
Pogue was then hit with his second early foul at the 16:09 and Joe Latas had to stand in as the big for the Vikes.
Pogue had two fouls and Kamczyc and Latas had a foul each at the 15:57 mark of the first half.
The Panthers opened a six-point lead at the 14:04 mark. That was a 10-2 run the Panthers had quickly put together. Stretching it to eight, before Cole put a jumper away to make it 17-11.
Eventually Milwaukee's inside game was too much, as they dominated the under the basket, but were able to hit the outside shots, hitting four of their first six baskets from three.
"We did not get to their shooters quick enough," Cole said. "We had some open shots and like to attack the basket more."
CSU trailed by as much as 24-11 (11:00).
Pogue had a few great moments fighting for the ball underneath, grabbing important offensive rebounds. He did, however, get entangled under the Viking basket with a Milwaukee defender and drew his third foul at the 10:12 mark.
With Pogue on the bench, the Vikings had to improve their outside shooting, as they were just 5-16 (31.3%) at the time of Pogue's third foul. Milwaukee had the advantage on the glass, too, leading 13-6 (7:58).
Milwaukee's Ja'Rob McCollum got to the line for three shots after he was fouled on the wing. He hit all three and again the Vikes trailed 30-15 (7:40). He went on to hit another two from the line at the 5:52 mark to give Milwaukee their biggest lead in the half, 34-17.
Norris Cole stepped to the line at the 4:34 mark of the half after getting fouled. He hit both his shots giving him six points to that point, tying Montgomery for the leaders in Viking points.
Cole had hit all four of his free throws, but went 1-6 from the field. In fact, the Vikings hit just eight of their first 28 shots in the half.
Tony Meir hit his third three of the half, giving Milwaukee the 37-23 lead with 3:40 remaining. He led all scorers at the half with 15.
Despite the shooting woes, Trey Harmon's basket with 37 seconds got the Vikings within ten 39-92. Then a Josh McCoy three with four seconds to go helped the Vikings inch closer at 41-32.
"I was relieved what were at the half," Waters said.
At the half, the Vikes scored 11 points off nine Milwaukee turnovers. However, with six offensive rebounds, CSU only mustered four-second chance points.
CSU had the ball to start the half and Cole got the Vikes started with a layup and a Harmon layup got CSU within five at 41-36, the closest they have been since 14:36 mark of the first half.
Pogue picked up his fourth foul on a charge at the 17:55 mark. Waters took him off in favor of the freshman Luda Ndaye.
"We didn't have the bench and we didn't rebound the basketball," Waters said. "Those two things hurt us."
Kaylon Williams hit a three from the right side for Milwaukee, then Ryan Allen hit a layup and again the Panthers led by double digits, 48-38.
After Kamczyc hit a jumper from the free-throw line, CSU pushed the issue and put on the full court press. Right away Milwaukee had problems with it, causing the Panthers to call aquick timeout.
Tone Boyle hit a three and Milwaukee retook a 16-point lead. Meier then hit a fade away three with no time on the shot clock, then hit a jumper and it was 61-42 at the 12:53 mark.
Milwaukee held as large as a 19-point lead, but the Vikings were able to chip away at the lead, the biggest Milwaukee lead of the night.
Norris Cole looked to be the answer for the Vikings and his toughness helped the Vikings get back into the game. Between him and Harmon, they hit six of the Vikings next eight baskets, to get them within six.
CSU answered a Milwaukee basket at the 6:49 mark. First Montgomery hit a layup for the Vikes, then Trey Harmon picked a Panthers pass and Cole hit a jumper to make it an eight-point game, 69-61.
Cole, uncharacteristic-like, missed a pair of free throws. But then acrobatically hit a layup, then a jumper to get CSU within six at 71-65 with 4:36 to go.
After going 2-9 in the first half, Cole hit 8-11 in the second and led all Viking scorers with 27.
The Panthers' Tony Meier had 28 points, led all scorers, as Anthony Hill and Tone Boyle added 16.
Josh McCoy hit a big three to make it 73-68. CSU had a chance to grab the rebound, but Meier went over two Vikes to get the basket and get the put-in.
That seemed to be one that hurt, as Milwaukee would not give up the lead.
CSU could not break the five-point margin until the last seconds. Meier hit one of two from the free-throw line with 8.8 seconds left to make it a two-possession ball game and the Panthers improve to 12-5 on the year.
The Vikings end their regular season Saturday afternoon with the Green Bay Phoenix with tip coming at 2:00 p.m. at the Wolstein Center.
