Jan. 12, 2008
Contact: Brian McCann
FAIRBORN, Ohio -- Kevin Francis buried a three-pointer with 11.7 seconds left to bring the Vikings back from a 13-point deficit to claim a 65-63 win over Wright State in the Nutter Center.
The Vikings (12-5) extend their Horizon League win streak to six straight games going back to last season, sitting all alone in first place with a 5-0 league record for the first time since 1992-93. Wright State, the defending league regular season and tournament champion, drop to 9-6 overall and 2-4 in league play.
"The last play was designed to go to Kevin all the way," CSU head coach Gary Waters said. "The idea was to get the ball to Joe Davis and since he is one of our scorers, we thought Wright State would defend him hard. Kevin was supposed to step back and take the three if he was open."
The Vikings couldn't have diagramed the play any better as Francis calmly knocked down the trey.
On the ensuing possession, Wright State held the ball at the top of the key and was starting to get into its offense when D'Aundray Brown and J'Nathan Bullock forced the ball loose and WSU maintained possession on the ensuing tie up with 1.7 seconds left.
The Raiders inbounded to towards the basket but George Tandy deflected the pass out of bounds as the buzzer sounded. Five-tenths of a second was added to the clock after the officials conferred but Todd Brown's jumper was blocked by D'Aundray Brown at buzzer to seal the win.
"We won this game with heart," Waters said. "This team is on a mission. They may not exactly know right now where it is taking us, but we are playing some good basketball and we have good things ahead for us."
Poor shooting in the half-court offense proved to be the Achilles Heel of the Vikings as CSU shot just .397 from the field (23-58). The best offense of the Vikings came on the offensive glass as CSU grabbed 21 offensive rebounds (as part of a 34-24 rebounding edge) and had a 25-8 edge in second chance points.
"We hit the glass hard tonight," Waters said. "We weren't making our initial shots, but we went after every missed shot and tried to get it back."
Bullock led CSU with 12 points and 11 rebounds for his ninth career double-double but the Viking bench accounted for 34 points. Joe Davis led the bench bunch with 10 points while George Tandy chipped in with nine points, seven rebounds and three blocks. The freshmen duo of D'Aundray Brown (eight points, five rebounds) and Norris Cole (seven points) each turned in strong efforts off the bench.
Vaughn Duggins led Wright State with 18 points while Jordan Pleiman and Todd Brown added 15 points each. The Raiders shot .541 from the field (20-37), including seven-for-11 from three-point (.636) and .727 from the line (16-22), but turned the ball over 16 times.
CSU took 21 more field goal attempts than Wright State (58-37).
The Vikings had to play catch up the entire first half as Wright State jumped out to a 16-3 lead with 13:24 left in the opening half.
But as the Vikings have done so many times on the road, CSU answered its early shooting slump with a defensive spurt that put the Vikings back into contention.
CSU ran off nine straight points - coming from four different players - to close to with 216-14 with 10:26 left. Davis started the run with a basket in the lane, followed by three-pointer by Jackson.
Kevin Francis got into the action, making one of two free throws on one possession and a three-pointer on the next. When D'Aundray Brown scored in transition of a pass from Jackson, CSU had pulled to within two.
Wright State came right back, rebuilding the lead to 31-19 with 4:22 left but eight straight Vikings points - four each from Brown and Cole - closed CSU to within 31-27 and the Raiders eventually went to the locker room with a 36-31 lead.
A pair of baskets by Bullock to open the second half allowed CSU to even the score at 37-37 (16:56) and the Vikings took their first lead (46-45) on a three-pointer by Davis with 11:40 left.
Five ties and nine lead changes would follow down the stretch with neither team leading by more than five points. CSU would take a 62-60 lead on a driving layup by Jackson with 2:37 left but a Todd Brown basket with 2:09 left would even the score.
Each team had several possessions in the next 90 seconds with WSU taking its final lead, 63-62 with 25 seconds left, when Duggins converted one of two free throws.
The Vikings return home this week to host 14th-ranked Butler on Thursday (Jan. 17) in the Wolstein Center.
