Jan. 10, 2008
Contact: Brian McCann
DETROIT, Mich. -- With Cedric Jackson and J'Nathan Bullock leading the charge, Cleveland State was successful on Thursday night in getting one of the biggest monkeys in school history off its back, coming back from a 13-point first half deficit to win in Detroit for the first time in 21 tries, out-lasting the Titans, 74-64.
In the process, the Vikings (11-5, 4-0) won its first four conference games for the first time since 1999-2000 to remain all alone atop the Horizon League standings.
"This was a big win for us," head coach Gary Waters said. "Any time you win on the road in this league is big and to do so tonight against a talented team like Detroit will really help us in the standings.
"Add to the mix that Detroit was playing with emotion and they became that much harder to beat. There is a reason why Kent State lost here this year and Butler and DePaul had such a hard time here.
Bullock and Jackson led CSU with 16 points each while freshmen D'Aundray Brown and Norris Cole provided a spark off the bench by scoring nine and seven points, respectively.
Bullock did most of the damage, going nine-for-11 from the line, including a seven-for-eight effort in the final 10 minutes. Jackson added a game-high five assists.
The Titan trio of Chris Hayes (17 points) and Eulis Stephans and Jon Goode (16 points each) did the bulk of the scoring for Detroit (4-11, 0-5). Goode, who led the Horizon League in scoring, was held in check until the final three minutes and managed just seven-for-17 shooting.
Stephans, a sophomore who originally signed with Cleveland State out of high school only to be released from his letter of intent when Mike Garland was removed as coach, played with a vengeance, going six-for-10 from the field.
After trailing for most of the first 20 minutes, the Vikings took the lead for good, 42-40, on a Cedric Jackson layup with 10:56 left. Unlike previous games in Calihan Hall, once in the lead CSU refused to let the Titans back in, gradually building a lead and making their free throws down the stretch. The Vikings were 24-for-31 from the stripe in the game, including 20-for-24 in the second half (.833), as Detroit could pull no closer than five points in the final five minutes.
The first half essentially proved nothing as the Vikings played flat for the first 12 minutes before fighting back to tie the contest up just before the break.
Three-pointers from Hayes, Nemanja Jokic and Everingham gave the Titans a 13-10 lead with 14:08 left in the half.
With the Vikings trailing just 17-14 with 11:06 left, Detroit ran off 10 straight points to build a 27-14 lead with 7:41 left. A pair of turnovers and two missed layups hurt the Vikings during the stretch.
Just as quickly as the game had soured, it turned in the Vikings' favor has good half-court defense limited Detroit to contested perimeter shots. At the other end, CSU took advantage of its break opportunities to fight back.
Bullock started it with back-to-back driving layups followed by a three-pointer from Jackson. Junior Nick Weaver, seeing rare first half duty, scored in transition off a long pass from Jackson to pull CSU to within 29-23 with 2:11 left.
The Vikings would run off six more points to push the scoring run to 15-2. D'Aundray Brown scored the first hoop, going coast-to-coast for a basket following his own steal. Bullock added a pair of free throws and Jackson scored on a putback of a missed Breyohn Watson shot with 10 seconds left to even the contest at 29-29.
Goode however would give the Titans a 31-29 halftime lead when he buried a 12-foot jumper with seven seconds left.
The Vikings have little time to celebrate before traveling to Fairborn, Ohio on Saturday (Jan. 12) to face defending Horizon League champion Wright State beginning at 7:00 p.m. in the Nutter Center.
