Nov. 27, 2011
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Contact: Greg Murphy
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KINGSTON, R.I. - Aaron Pogue scored a career-high 20 points and Cleveland State led from start to finish in a 67-45 win over Rhode Island in the final game of the Ticket City Legends Classic Sub-Regional in the Thomas M. Ryan Center on Sunday afternoon.
The win allowed the Vikings to capture the Kingston, R.I. Sub-Regional Championship of the tournament with a 2-1 mark. Pogue was named MVP of the Sub-Regional, while D'Aundray Brown joined him on the all-tournament team.
Brown had 15 points, four rebounds and four steals today.
The Vikings wasted little time in jumping on the host Rams, racing out to a 12-4 lead just three minutes in and forcing a quick Ram timeout. A majority of the damage was done by Pogue, who dominated the first three minutes in the paint with a variety of moves on the low block and a baby hook.
He scored seven of CSU's first 12 points, including a three-point play that put CSU up 7-4. Pogue went on to score 13 points in the first half, hitting 6-of-8 from the field.
But he had plenty of help as CSU used its defensive pressure to force 17 first half turnovers that the Vikings turned into 18 points. CSU's defense also allowed the Vikings to get several easy looks at the basket, including in transition, as the Vikings shot .545 (18-33) in the first 20 minutes.
CSU would push the lead to 13 points (21-8) on a Brown three-pointer with 11:40 to play, but the Rams responded with 11 straight points to cut their deficit to four (21-17) with 7:27 to play.
But that would be as close as the Rams would get the rest of the day as the Vikings responded with a layup by Brown, a Pogue dunk and back-to-back steals and layups to push the lead back to 12 points (29-17) with 5:45 to play.
The lead would swell to 18 points (40-22) at the half as the Vikings scored the final eight points of the half, including an Anton Grady layup just before the buzzer after a steal.
The lead reached as many as 31 points in the second half when Trey Harmon hit a jumper to make it 59-28 with 11:38 left.
CSU shot .518 (29-56) from the field and held URI to .396 (21-53). The Vikings also forced 21 turnovers, scoring 22 fast break points.
CSU is back in action on Thursday (Dec. 1) when the Vikings open Horizon League play with a 7:00 p.m. contest at Wright State.
