Dec. 4, 2008

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CLEVELAND, Ohio - Butler's Zach Hahn hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to lift the Bulldogs to a 50-48 victory over Cleveland State in Horizon League action on Thursday night in the Wolstein Center.

CSU fell to 5-3 overall and 1-1 in league play, while Butler remained perfect at 6-0 and won their Horizon League opener.

The Vikings had a seven point lead (43-36) with 4:47 to play, but the Bulldogs ran off five straight points to slice the lead to 43-41 with 2:31 left. Cedric Jackson split a pair of free throws with 2:11 left to push the CSU lead back to three (44-41), but Gordon Hayward hit a free throw and Matt Howard converted a layup with 55 seconds left to knot the score at 44-44.

After J'Nathan Bullock missed a jumper, George Tandy got an offensive rebound and was fouled, converting 1-of-2. His missed second shot was rebounded by D'Aundray Brown who got the ball to Jackson who was fouled. Jackson again hit 1-of-2 to push the lead back to two, 46-44.

However, Butler responded with a Shawn Vanzant three-pointer with 19 seconds left to take a 47-46 lead, their first advantage since midway through the first half.

The Vikings came down and following a timeout, got the ball to Bullock who bullied his way down into the pain for a layup with five seconds left that gave CSU a 48-47 lead with five seconds left.

Inbounding under their own basket, Butler got the ball to Hayward who slipped at midcourt before regaining his balance and getting the ball to Hahn on the left wing for the game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer.

"You have to take the good with the bad," head coach Gary Waters said. "We beat ourselves. That was some bad basketball. Down the stretch, there were five plays that we blundered on defense and allowed them to score. We didn't execute down the stretch.

"We made that game harder than it should have been. I don't want to take anything away from Butler because they played to win and they did. But we did some things that are uncharacteristic of our team and we have to get this one back because we gave this one away today."

Butler started out hot from the field, taking a 15-10 lead with 12:23 left in the first half as the Bulldogs hit three three-pointers during the stretch. CSU battled back to take a 17-15 lead with 7:16 to play on a Tandy layup.

CSU would push the advantage to seven points (27-20) at the half.

The Bulldogs opened the first three minutes of the second half on a 7-2 run, cutting CSU's lead back to two points (29-27). But the Vikings quickly responded with four straight points, pushing the advantage back to six.

CSU would extend the lead to as many as eight points (41-33) on a Chris Moore layup with six minutes to play, but the Bulldogs refused to give in, fighting back down the stretch and outscoring CSU, 17-7 over the final six minutes.

"There were five possessions that we let them score on down the stretch and that's on our defense. We didn't execute. And you can't expect to win a game like this if you miss all those free throws. They eventually catch up to you in the end."

CSU hit just 17-of-29 (.586) from the line, while the Bulldogs converted 9-of-13 (.692).

The difference was behind the arc where Butler hit 7-of-21, compared to just 1-of-11 for the Vikings.

Jackson finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds, while Tandy had 10 points, eight boards and two blocked shots. They were the only two players to reach double-figures in the game.

Butler was paced by eight points and 12 boards from Hayward, while Wilie Veasley had nine points.

Neither team shot well from the field with CSU hitting just 15-of-58 (.259) and Butler making 17-of-54 (.315). The Bulldogs also had a 46-44 advantage on the boards.

CSU committed a season-low nine turnovers.

"This is going to be a major learning experience for us and I hope we can learn some things from this game," Waters said. "It was disappointing we didn't get a win for the fans."

CSU is back in action on Saturday (Dec. 6) when the Vikings travel to West Virgina for a 1:00 p.m. contest.