Jan. 14, 2010
Contact: Brian McCann
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INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana - Jeremy Montgomery scored a game-high 22 points but poor second half shooting by the Vikings allowed 22nd-rated Butler to rally from a nine-point first half deficit to claim a 64-55 win over Cleveland State on Thursday night in Hinkle Fieldhouse.
The loss, which snapped CSU's league winning streak at three games, dropped the Vikings to 7-11 overall and 3-3 in Horizon League play, good for fifth place. Butler improved to 13-4 overall and 6-0 in conference play, good for a game-and-a-half lead over Detroit and Green Bay in the league race.
"I told our guys after the game that they didn't do anything to lose this game tonight except not take care of the ball. The rest was a bad game plan on my part," CSU head coach Gary Waters said. "They did everything I asked them to do except not commit turnovers. We shut down or limited the players that we wanted to, but we let several guys just run loose in the second half and cause us some problems.
"D'Aundray (Brown) did a great job on (Gordon) Hayward and Aaron (Pogue) more then held his own on (reigning Horizon League Player of the Year Matt) Howard, but those little guards (Ronald Nored & Shawn Vanzant penetrated too much in the second half which allowed them to create things inside our defense. That shouldn't happen."
Montgomery was six-for-nine from three-point en route to posting his third 20-point game of the season while Trey Harmon added 12 points and Norris Cole 11 for CSU. Willie Veasley led the Bulldogs with 16 points while Shelvin Mack added 15 and Nored chipped in with 11.
With Montgomery scoring 13 first half points, the Vikings jumped out quickly, building a 22-13 lead with 9:02 left in the opening half. Butler closed to within 26-22 with 3:43 left before Harmon scored five straight points, on a pair of free throws and a three-pointer, to put CSU ahead, 31-22 with 3:08 remaining.
But with Cole playing cautious with a pair of fouls and Montgomery on the bench with two fouls, the Vikings turned the ball over three times in the final three minutes to allow Butler to run off eight straight points to close to within 31-30 at the half.
"We should have been up much more at halftime, but we didn't take care of the ball," Waters said. "Instead of being up close to 10, we only led by one point and that was unfortunate."
Nored opened the second half by scoring inside to put Butler ahead, 32-31 but CSU pushed back ahead. When Harmon knocked down a three-pointer with 15:49 left, the Vikings led 38-35.
Butler took the lead for good by running off seven straight points, including a transition basket by Mack with 14:05 left that put the Bulldogs ahead, 42-38.
Cold-shooting hampered CSU's comeback efforts as the Vikings, who shot .522 in the first half (12-23), made just eight of 23 field goals in the second half (.348). Butler on the other hand warmed up after the break, going 11-for-18 from the field in the second half (.611).
After Montgomery knocked down a trey, his sixth of the game, to pull CSU to within 49-46 with 9:23 left, Butler ran off nine of the next 11 points to extend the lead to 58-48 with 3:43 to play, effectively ending the CSU rally.
"We just didn't make enough shots at the end," Waters said. "Hopefully we will learn from this game and go to Valparaiso on Saturday and come back with a split on this road trip."
The Vikings conclude their trip through Indiana when they play at Valparaiso on Saturday, January 16 beginning at 2:00 p.m. The game is the Horizon League Game of the Week and will be televised throughout Ohio on SportsTime Ohio.
