Jan. 20, 2007

Final Stats

Contact: Brian McCann

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - Sophomore J'Nathan Bullock led four Vikings in double figures with 18 points but a second half Cleveland State rally fell short, 68-63, to Youngstown State on Saturday night at the Beeghly Center.

The loss sends the Vikings to 7-14 and 1-7 in Horizon League play while Youngstown State improves to 9-11 and 4-4 in league action.

Senior Raheem Moss scored 14 points, 12 coming in the second half, while freshman Joe Davis scored 12 and sophomore Bahaadar Russell added 11.

Quin Humphrey led all scorers with 22 points and grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds. Humphrey hit 4-of-8 from beyond the arc and added four steals. Keston Roberts added 20 points and John Barber 18 for Youngstown State.

"We played hard tonight and were able to make some plays down the stretch, but I don't think that we played very smart, and that hurt us," head coach Gary Waters said. 

"We did a nice job of getting the ball inside to J'Nathan in the first half, but Youngstown State made some nice adjustments at half and were able to pretty much shut him down.

"We knew going into the game that Humphrey and Roberts were going to score because it is hard to contain those two guys, but the guy who really stepped up and hurt us was Barber because he hasn't been able to consistantly score this year.  He really proved to be the difference tonight."

Trailing, 57-50, Russell drained a deep trey to pull CSU within four. Barber hit a mid-range jumper but Russell scored five straight points, including three on a contested shot from 25 feet, to cut the Vikings' deficit to 59-58 with 1:10 to play. Humphrey answered with a three to make it 62-58 with 57.7 seconds left before a three by senior Raheem Moss cut the lead back to one with 40.1 seconds to play.

With the clock winding down, YSU's Byron Davis drove the lane and drew a foul, calmly hitting a pair of free throws with 29.9 seconds to play to put the Penguins ahead, 64-61. A contested three by Russell hit the back of the iron to seal the Vikings' fate.

Two Humphrey free throws and a fast-break dunk by put it away for the Penguins.

Neither team shot particularly well, with YSU converting on 40 percent of its field goals while CSU shot at a 37 percent clip. The Vikings held a 40-37 rebounding edge and hit 12-of-16 at the free throw line.

The Penguins, behind a combined 8-of-16 from Humphrey and Roberts, shot 40 percent (8-20) from three-point range.

The Penguins held their largest lead of the night at 39-32 before the Vikings came storming back. Moss rebounded a missed free throw by Bullock and scored the putback to pull the Vikings to 39-35. Moss added a driving lay-up and a trey moments later to key an 8-0 CSU run, seven coming from Moss, that gave the Vikings a 40-39 lead with 12:40 remaining before Barber converted two free throws at the 12:19 mark to give YSU a 41-40 lead.

The Penguins then scored five quick points on back-to-back Cleveland State turnovers to take a 46-40 lead at the 11:14 mark.

The Vikings pulled to within 46-43 before a trey by Humphrey put YSU up 49-43 with 9:37 to play. Freshman Joe Davis answered with a pull-up jumper but Humphrey scored again in the paint to put the Penguins back up six, 51-45.

Davis scored CSU's first five points of the game and no other Viking scored until Bullock hit a jumper to pull the Vikings within 8-7 at the 16:27 mark. Both teams traded baskets for the next couple minutes with Cleveland State taking an 18-15 lead on a three-pointer by Russell at the 10:35 mark.

The Penguins answered with five straight points to regain the lead at 20-18 when Bullock scored to the game at 20.

CSU led, 22-20, after a lay-up by freshman Tristan Crawford but YSU answered with a 11-4 run to take a 33-26 lead with 40 seconds to go. Two free throws by senior Raheem Moss closed the Vikings to within five at the half, 33-28.

The Vikings return to action on Saturday, Jan. 27 at UIC at 3:00 p.m. ET.