CHICAGO, Ill. – Daniel Levitt hit four three-pointers for a career-high 12 points and Gary Waters earned his 350th career win as Cleveland State won at Loyola, 60-54, on Wednesday night.
The win improves CSU to 3-7 this year, while the Ramblers fall to 5-5 and lost for the first time at home in five games this year.
Levitt was one of four Vikings in double figures as Andre Yates led CSU with 14 points. Jibri Blount scored 11 points with seven rebounds and Demonte Flannigan scored 10 and added three blocks.
Tim Hasbargen added seven points and Vinny Zollo grabbed eight rebounds.
Earl Peterson led Loyola with 16 points.
The Ramblers took their largest lead of the game (18-11) on a three-pointer by Ben Richardson nine minutes into the contest. However, the Vikings would close the half on a 12-6 run – holding the Ramblers without a field goal for more than nine minutes at one point – and went into the locker room down just one point (24-23).
The second half was back and forth, featuring five ties and seven lead changes with CSU taking a 47-42 lead on back-to-back three-pointers from Hasbargen and Levitt. However, the Ramblers responded with five straight points to tie the game at 47-47, but two free throws by Blount and a long three-pointer from Levitt with the shot clock winding down gave CSU a 52-47 lead with 2:12 to play and Hasbargen, Yates and Blount all hit two free throws each in the final 30 seconds to ice the win.
The Vikings held a 38-33 advantage on the boards, blocked six shots and made nine steals.
CSU finished 7-of-17 from three-point and held Loyola to 3-of-13 from long range.
CSU is back in action on Saturday (Dec. 19) when the Vikings host Belmont at 1:00 pm in the Wolstein Center.
