Jan. 18, 2007

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Contact: Brian McCann

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland State made a furious second half rally but Wright State shot 62 percent in the second half to run past the Vikings, 78-67, on Thursday night at the Wolstein Center. The loss sends the Vikings to 7-13 on the season and 1-6 in Horizon League play. The Raiders improve to 12-7 and 5-1 in league.

Sophomore J'Nathan Bullock led CSU with 21 points while fellow sophomore Bahaadar Russell and Joe Davis each added 17. Senior Patrick Tatham grabbed a career-high 12 rebounds for the Vikings.

Wright State's DaShaun Wood led four Raiders in double figures with a game-high 26 points. He also had 6 assists, five rebounds and four steals. Todd Brown added 14 for WSU.

After trailing by 10 at the half, CSU scored the first six points in the first 52 seconds of the second stanza to pull within 37-33. Wood stopped the Viking run with a trey at the 18:00 mark, but Cleveland State got five more points to cut the lead to 40-38.

Trailing 46-41 at the 15:06 mark, CSU got a lay-up and a pair of free throws from Bullock to pull to 46-45 before Davis converted a three-point play at the 14:26 mark to give the Vikings a 48-46 lead.

The Vikings would not lead again.

With the score tied at 50 with just over 10 minutes remaining, Wright State went on a 10-2 run to take a 60-52 lead with 7:49 left. The Vikings would pull to within five, 62-57, on a three-pointer by Davis at the 6:27 mark but would come no closer.

After a three-pointer by Vaughn Duggins, Brown converted on a dunk off a steal by Wood to put CSU down 67-57. The Vikings cut the deficit to 72-66 on a lay-up by Davis at the 2:11 mark, but Wright State dissected Cleveland State's late pressure to feed Jordan Pleiman for two late buckets to seal the Raider win.

Cleveland State shot 50 percent (13-26) in the second half and 42 percent for the game. Wright State shot 54 percent, including 7-of-10 from three-point range, from the floor on the night and had a 35-28 rebounding edge.

"Wright State really shot the ball well tonight," head coach Gary Waters said. "I can't make any excuses for that. They just hit shots.

"We fought hard. We put a group of guys out there that we thought could make it happen."

Wright State led by 14 on two different occasions in the second half, and the Vikings used full-court pressure and strong play inside by Bullock to regain the lead, but ran out of gas down the stretch.

"We laid it all out on the line in the first five minutes," Waters said. "I give our kids credit for that. But when you're undermanned like we are, it is tough to sustain it."

CSU was playing its second straight game without two of its top players, senior Carlos English and junior Kevin Francis, who have been declared academically ineligible.

Senior Victor Morris returned to the lineup for the first time since breaking a bone in his foot against Ohio State on Dec. 9. Morris played four minutes in the second half and attempted one shot. The Vikings are 2-7 since his injury against the Buckeyes.

The Vikings head to Youngstown State on Saturday, Jan. 20 for a 7:05 p.m. tilt. The game can be seen on SportsTime Ohio.