Feb. 26, 2009
Contact: Brian McCann
VALPARAISO, Ind. - J'Nathan Bullock scored a game-high 25 points and the Vikings shot a season-high 61-percent from the field as Cleveland State ran away from Valparaiso in the second half to post a 71-64 win.
The victory, CSU's 21st of the year against nine defeats improved the Vikings to 12-5 in Horizon League play, good for third place. Valparaiso drops to 8-21 overall and 4-13 in league play.
With only Saturday's game at Butler remaining, the picture for next week's Horizon League Championship has gotten much clearer.
A win over Butler on Saturday would assure CSU of the No. 3 seed in the tourney. The Vikings would host No. 10 Detroit in a first round game on Tuesday, March 3 at 7:00 p.m. in the Wolstein Center.
If CSU loses to Butler, the Vikings would drop to the No. 4 seed unless Green Bay wins at Wright State on Saturday or UIC defeats Loyola on Friday night and Valparaiso defeats Youngstown State on Saturday. A No. 4 seed would mean that CSU would host Valparaiso on Tuesday night.
CSU can finish as high as second place, but cannot earn the No. 2 seed.
Regardless of seed or opponent, the Vikings are assured of playing a home game on Tuesday night (March 3) in the Wolstein Center. Tickets will be available beginning on Monday morning at the Wolstein Center ticket office. Season ticket holders will be able to purchase the same seats that they have during the regular season.
Because of the tight turnaround before the game, tickets will only be available at the Wolstein Center. There will be no phone orders or tickets available through TicketMaster outlets.
Now back to the game.
After a nip-and-tuck first half, the Vikings used their size and athleticism inside to their advantage in the second stanza, making 14 of their 17 second half field goal attempts (.824) to slowly take control of the game.
Leading 35-33 just two minutes into the second half, CSU ran off eight straight points to push the lead to double digits for the first time, 45-35 with 13:16 left.
Valpo would close to within 7 (55-48, 6:11), but the Vikings then ran off 10 straight points, six coming from Bullock, to lead 65-48 with 2:42 left.
The Crusaders would make a run, scoring 10 straight points to pull to within 65-58 with 27 seconds left, but the Vikings would make six straight free throws to secure the game.
"We started a little slowly tonight, but once we got going, we were able to execute our game plan and do the things we wanted to do," CSU head coach Gary Waters said. "We got sloppy at the end and didn't take care of the ball and made the game closer than it should have been."
"Our inside game was very strong tonight and we made our shots. When we do that, we are very hard to beat," Waters said.
Bullock led the way with 25 points with George Tandy adding 15 points, Norris Cole 11 points and six assists and D'Aundray Brown 10 points with a game-high nine rebounds.
Bullock was sensational, going nine-for-11 from the field and seven-for-eight from the line to record his 20th career 20-point game. He went over the 1,700 point mark for his career, ending the night with 1,709 career points.
With the defense trying to stop Bullock, Tandy continually found himself left alone in the high post and he made the Crusaders pay, going six-for-eight from the field with six rebounds.
Brown slashed his way to the basket, making all five of his field goal attempts to score in double figures for the third time since returning from a broken rib seven games ago.
CSU also picked up the pace at the line, going 20-for-25 (.800) to shoot 80-percent or better for the fifth time this year.
"I told my team that in order to win on the road, you have to take care of the ball, you have to make your free throws and you have to rebounds. For the most part we did all three tonight until the final three minutes," Waters said.
After the two teams exchanged leads five times in the first five minutes of the game, Valpo used a 7-1 run to turn a 7-6 deficit into a 13-8 lead (11:43).
The lead would grow to eight (19-11, 10:05) on a Rodgers three-pointers.
The Vikings used a full-court pressure defense to key their comeback. Trailing 23-17 (7:05), CSU ran off nine straight points to take a 26-23 lead with 3:06 left in the half.
Tandy got the run started with a jumper in the lane and Cole followed with a transition layup after making a steal. Tandy was fouled on CSU's next possession and made both free throws to tie that game at 23-23 and D'Aundray Brown put CSU ahead wit h a baseline jumper.
Chris Moore made the first of two free throws to end the run. Valpo knotted the game at 28 on a Igbavboa layup with 53 seconds left.
Tandy, who scored nine points in the first half, closed the scoring with a three-point play with 18 seconds left to give the Vikings a 31-28 halftime lead.
The Vikings will have an off day on Friday before traveling to Indianapolis to face No. 24 Butler on Saturday (Feb. 28) beginning at 12 noon in Butler's Hinkle Fieldhouse. The game will be televised live on ESPN2.
