Nov. 22, 2011
Contact: Greg Murphy
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KENT, Ohio - Jeremy Montgomery scored 13 points and D'Aundray Brown added 11 as Cleveland State improved to 4-0 with a 57-53 win at Kent State on Tuesday night. The win was the 275th in the career of head coach Gary Waters.
The Golden Flashes fell to 2-1.
"This was a hard-fought game tonight, but I feel we made it tougher than we should have," head coach Waters said. "We didn't take care of the basketball and I was disappointed with the way we executed on offense. It was not one of our better games offensively, but I thought defensively, we played well and kept them from getting good looks.
"I thought this was a very important game for us. We are about to hit the road for three games in three days and I thought it was paramount that we competed and got ready for this trip. We have three games in three days and are going to need everyone on the roster to contribute this weekend."
The Vikings wasted little time in jumping on the Golden Flashes and silencing the sellout crowd quickly, jumping out to a 14-2 lead less than four minutes in. Montgomery highlighted the run with a pair of three-pointers.
"It was important that we got out to a lead tonight in this environment," Waters said. "We kept the lead from start to finish and that was important."
CSU's lead was still 12 points (19-7) with 10:27 left, but the Golden Flashes cut it down to six (21-15) on a Justin Manns layup with 4:41 left. However, the Vikings responded with a 7-1 run to push the lead to 13 points (28-15) with 2:31 left in the half.
Brown hit a jumper with 11 seconds left and provided a blocked shot with 1.1 seconds left to give CSU a 30-21 lead at the half.
Kent State cut the lead to five points on three occasions in the first nine minutes of the first half, the last one coming at 38-33 with 11:23 left. But once again, the Vikings answered.
Charlie Lee hit a layup and Aaron Pogue made back-to-back buckets to give the Vikings a 44-33 lead with 9:02 left. Kent State answered with seven straight points to cut its deficit to four points (44-40) with 5:33 left, but Brown hit the biggest shot of the night, a three-pointer from the right wing with 4:03 left and the shot clock winding down to stop the run and push the lead back to seven points (47-40).
After Justin Greene split a pair of free throws, Pogue answered on the other end with a three-point play to give the Vikings a 50-41 lead. The Golden Flashes were able to get within four down the stretch, but CSU hit 7-of-10 free throws in the final 90 seconds to seal the win.
CSU's defensive pressure was strong once again, limiting the Golden Flashes to .352 (19-54) shooting from the field, including just 1-of-17 from three-point. CSU also forced 22 turnovers, which the Vikings turned into 24 points.
The Vikings have forced at least 20 turnovers in all four games this year.
Lee finished with seven points and three assists, while Grady had four points, six rebounds and a pair of blocked shots.
CSU's bench scored 20 points.
CSU is back in action on Friday (Nov.25) when the Vikings continue play in the Ticket City Legends Classic, playing Boston University at 2:30 p.m. at Rhode Island.
