Jan. 4, 2007
Contact: Brian McCann CHICAGO, Illinois -- Cold-shooting in the first half and foul trouble proved to be obstacles too big to overcome as Cleveland State dropped a 66-55 decision at Loyola.
The Vikings (6-10, 0-3 Horizon) shot just .297 in the contest and the Ramblers had a commanding 23-11 scoring edge at the foul line. Majak Kou led Loyola with 18 points while J.R. Blount added 17, 10 of which came from the foul line.
Joe Davis led CSU with 18 points while Carlos English added 12 points and Kevin Francis came off the bench to score 10 points and grab a team-high seven rebounds, all of which came off the offensive glass.
After Cleveland State rallied from 15 down early in the second half to close to within one, the turning point came when Loyola answered the Vikings comeback by scoring six points at the foul line during an 8-2 run to take control of the game.
The Vikings made just 19 of their 64 field goal attempts in setting a season-low for field goal percentage, connecting on just six-of-26 three-point attempts (.231). They made up for it with defense, making 16 steals as part of 21 Loyola turnovers and blocking seven shots.
Loyola was 23-for-30 from the line (.767) while the Vikings made 11 of their 17 free throws (.647), including a five-for-11 effort (.455) in the second half.
"The difference in this game was that we got into foul trouble," head coach Gary Waters said. "When we made our run at them in the second half, we had six of our seven players with three fouls or more and that really took our toll down the stretch.
"Still, we had our chance to take the lead and we just didn't execute down the stretch. IF we had executed properly, this game would have been ours.
"We couldn't make a shot on offense in the first half, but because we played so hard offensively, we were able to stay close enough to make a run at them early in the second half when our shots began to fall. We need J'Nathan (Bullock) to play more than 11 minutes because we become very limited offensively without him," Waters added.
The opening 10 minutes of the game was a back-and-forth affair, featuring four ties and five lead changes, the last coming when Patrick Tatham made a pair of free throws with 10:17 left to put the Vikings ahead, 16-15.
CSU would not score again for more than eight minutes as Loyola ran off 14 straight points to take a 29-16 lead with 2:15 left. Five different Ramblers scored during the run with Tracy Robinson leading the way with five points.
English finally ended the spurt when he connected on a pair of free throws with 2:01 left and the Vikings headed into the break trailing, 34-32.
The fact that CSU trailed by 11 at half was a minor miracle, especially considering that the Vikings shot just .233 from the field (7-30), including a three-for-13 effort from three-point (.231), allowed Loyola to shoot .565 from the field (13-23) and have a 21-12 edge on the boards.
On the plus side for CSU was that the Vikings committed just five turnovers and made seven first half steals.
More bad news came in the opening seconds of the second half when J'Nathan Bullock, who picked up three fouls in just six minutes of action in the opening stanza, was assessed his fourth personal just 36 seconds into the half, sending him back to the bench.
With Bullock on the bench, the Ramblers extended their lead to a game-high 15, leading 41-26 with 17:52 left.
The Vikings answered quickly as Davis made a pair of three-pointers and English scored from the outside to start a 16-2 CSU burst that closed them to within 43-42 with 11:27 remaining.
Renard Fields and Raheem Moss added baskets during the run with Davis capping the spurt with an acrobatic three-point play in the lane, hanging in the air to create an opening through the bigger Rambler shot blockers and drawing the foul.
After a media timeout, Davis added the free throw to narrow the gap to 43-42 with 11:27 left.
The Ramblers reasserted themselves, running off eight of the next 10 points, six of which came at the foul line, to open up a 51-44 lead with 9:00 left.
CSU would come no closer than three points down the stretch and the Vikings never had the opportunity to tie the game.
Loyola's Blake Schilb, the Horizon League Preseason Player of the Year, did not play after suffering a broken left index finger in the Ramblers game at Youngstown State last week.
The Vikings continue their first multi-city road trip of the year when CSU plays at UW-Green Bay on Saturday (Jan. 6) beginning at 8:00 p.m. EST.
