Dec. 10, 2011
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CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland State senior Jeremy Montgomery hit a three-pointer with 21.2 seconds left to help the Vikings win for the 10th time in 11 games this season with a 69-66 victory over Akron on Saturday afternoon in the Wolstein Center.
The win improves the Vikings to 10-1 this year, while the Zips fell to 3-5.
Montgomery had struggled from the field all day, hitting just one of his first 11 shots, but came through when the Vikings needed it the most, securing the win with his three-pointer from the right wing as the shot clock was winding down.
His shot helped the Vikings improve to 7-0 in games decided by five points or less this year.
"I heard the crowd screaming out that the shot clock was low and I had to step-up and knock down a shot for my team," Montgomery said. "You have to stay positive and keep shooting. That's a shooter's attitude. I felt confident the whole time. With the ball in my hands and seeing that nothing was there, I just knocked it down for my team."
"Jeremy is a shooter," head coach Gary Waters said. "I don't mind if he shoots as long as he taking the right kind of shots. He and Tre (Harmon) have that mentality that if they miss their first 15 shots, they think they will make number 16."
Tre Harmon led the Vikings with 16 points, hitting 4-of-6 from three-point. D'Aundray Brown added 13 points and three steals, while Tim Kamczyc added 13 points, hitting all four of his shots from the field, including both three-pointers.
"We played hard all the way until the end," Waters said. "We have two issues that we need to correct though. We can't turn the ball over that many teams and we need to stop constant fouling. We're working at it and it will come. When we finally get it, we will be OK. We can defend well enough to get after any team. The last three possessions they had, we defended hard and they only scored once."
The Vikings had built a 13 point second half lead (50-37) with 13:22 to play, but the Zips battled all the way back and took a 65-64 lead on a Chauncey Gilliam layup with 3:31 left.
It stayed that way until Demetrius Treadwell split two free throws for the Zips with 1:48 left to put them ahead 66-64.
Montgomery was fouled on the next possession and hit both ends of a one and one to knot the contest at 66-66 and after an Akron turnover, Montgomery missed a three-pointer, but Brown grabbed an offensive rebound to give the Vikings another possession with just under 50 seconds left.
After working the ball around, Montgomery ended up on the right wing with the shot clock winding down and drilled the game-winning three pointer.
Akron still had one more shot to tie the game, but the Vikings buckled down on defense and Treadwell's three-pointer with two seconds left was off the mark and Sebastian Douglas grabbed the rebound as time expired.
Playing at home for just the third time this season and the first time since Nov. 18, the Vikings fell behind 15-9 at the 13:27 mark.
However, a layup by Harmon started a 9-2 run that was capped by a steal and coast to coast layup by Ike Nwamu, giving CSU an 18-17 lead. A jumper by Akron's Alex Abreu stopped the run, but the Vikings answered with back-to-back layups by Anton Grady and a Nwamu three-pointer to take their largest lead of the contest, 25-19, with just over seven minutes to play.
The Zips answered right back, scoring the next nine points, to assume a 28-25 lead at the 4:13 mark. However, much like the rest of the first half, the Vikings would come back and answer with a run of their own (10-2) to close the first half and take a 35-30 lead into the locker room.
The Vikings scored the final eight points of the half, including back-to-back three-pointers by Harmon and Kamczyc.
A strong start over the first seven minutes of the second half allowed the Vikings to push their lead to 13 points (50-37) on a layup by Kamczyc. Akron got its deficit back to six points (56-50) with 7:24 left in the contest, but a three-point play by Douglas put CSU back ahead by nine (59-50) just 11 seconds later.
That's when Akron began to slice into the deficit, setting up the wild finish.
CSU held a 31-28 advantage on the boards and blocked eight shots, including three by Aaron Pogue.
Akron held a huge advantage at the free throw line, hitting 21-of-29, compared to just 9-of-10 for CSU.
The Vikings are back in action on Monday (Dec. 19) when CSU travels to South Florida for a 7:00 p.m .contest.
Postgame Player Notes
Senior Guard Tre Harmon
• Followed up his career-high tying 24 point game on Thursday at Robert Morris to finish with 16 points today.
• Hit 6-of-10 from the field and 4-of-6 from three-point.
• Moved into 18th place on the all-time scoring list at CSU and now has 1,048 points.
Senior Guard D'Aundray Brown
• Finished with 13 points and 3 steals.
• Entered the game ranked second in the nation in steals and has now made multiple steals in 10 of 11 games this year.
Junior Forward Tim Kamczyc
• Scored 13 points, hitting all but one shot attempt from the floor.
• Hit all four field goal attempts, including two three-pointers, and went 3-of-4 at the free throw line.
Game Notes
• Today was the 65th all-time meeting between the two schools. Akron leads the series, 34-31, with the Vikings winning the last two and four of the last seven.
• Today's game was just CSU's third home game of the season and first since a win over St. Bonaventure on Nov. 18. The Vikings just completed a seven game road trip, going 6-1.
• Prior to today's game, the Vikings unveiled two banners after last year's record setting season. Both the 2011 Horizon League Championship and 2011 NIT banners were raised to the rafters.
• Akron finished with a big advantage at the free throw line, hitting 21-of-29. CSU went 9-for-10.
• The Vikings improved to 7-0 in games decided by five points or less this year.
• CSU finished with a 31-28 advantage on the glass and made eight blocked shots, including three from Aaron Pogue.
• With today's win over Akron and a win at Kent State on Nov. 22, the Vikings have swept the season series against its two Northeast Ohio rivals for the second straight season. first time since the 1997-98 season. This year marked the 32nd time that CSU played both teams in the same year and the fifth time that the Vikings swept all of the games. CSU claimed single games against both teams in 1987-88, 1997-98 and 2010-11, and went 3-0 in 1977-78, 1980-81 and 1985-86, winning twice against Akron in both 1977-78 and 1980-81.
