Vikings Top UIC, 73-61, in First Round of Horizon League Championship

Posted: Mar 01, 2011

March 1, 2011

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CLEVELAND, Ohio - Horizon League Player of the Year Norris Cole scored 26 points and Jeremy Montgomery added 17 to help third-seeded Cleveland State knock off 10th-seeded UIC, 73-61, in the first round of the Horizon League Men's Basketball Championship on Tuesday night at the Wolstein Center.

The win moves the Vikings to 25-7 overall and advances CSU to the second round of the league championship where the Vikings will face sixth-seeded Wright State at 6:00 p.m. EST in Milwaukee at U.S. Cellular Arena.

The Raiders advanced to the second round with a 60-50 win over seventh-seeded Green Bay tonight.

Trevon Harmon scored 13 points for the Vikings while Aaron Pogue finished with 10.

The win was the sixth in the last seven tournament games for the Vikings. In addition, the win improves CSU to 16-2 at home this season, breaking the record for most home wins in a season.

"This was the second straight game in which we played a very strong first half and then let a team come back on us," head coach Gary Waters said. "What we did in the second half is not rebound the basketball very well. We got out-rebounded today and our bench got outscored. Beyond that, I thought our kids played very hard and did some good things.

"I made sure they understood that they had to play with intensity. The funny thing about that team is that they ended up in last place, but they're the best last place team I've seen in a long time. They're better than their record is and I know they are disappointed because they lost a lot of close games. I give them credit because they played hard in the second half."

Cole had the 37th, 20-point game of his career and the 18th this season. Already the owner of the school single season record for free throws made, Cole has now also broken the record for free throws attempted after going 9-for-9 from the line on Tuesday. The senior is now 200-237 for the year, breaking Ken McFadden's marks for attempts (233, set in 1987-88) and free throws made (177, set in both 1986-87 and 1987-88).

UIC opened with a 6-0 run, building a 9-5 score before the Vikings took their first lead of the game (10-9) on a basket by Cole nearly five minutes into the half. The Flames would tie the game at 12 with 12:56 left in the half, but that's as close as the Flames would get to regaining the lead, as the Vikings dominated the rest of the first period, using a 24-4 run as the lead swelled to as many as 21 points in the first half.

CSU would ultimately take a 40-23 lead into the half.

Three Vikings had double-digit points by halftime, with Cole leading the way with 14. Montgomery tallied 11 points in the first period while Harmon scored 10 as the Vikings shot .500 (14-28) from the field in the first half.

While Cleveland State was able to keep UIC at bay in the first half, the Flames heated up at the start of the second half, using a 19-6 run to open the half and cut the CSU lead to five points (49-44) with 11:09 to play.

The lead was still five points (51-46), but Cole hit a three pointer and Montgomery scored on a jumper in the lane to push the lead back to 10 points (56-46) with 7:48 left. UIC did not get closer than nine points the rest of the game.

UIC held a 43-28 advantage on the boards, but committed 19 turnovers that led to 17 CSU points. The Vikings made just five turnovers all game, leading to just two UIC points. The five turnovers are the second least in a game in CSU history with the school record four miscues coming earlier in the season against South Florida.

UIC finishes the 2010-11 season with a 7-24 record.