Skip to navigation Skip to content Skip to footer
Cleveland State University

The Official Home of the Cleveland State University Vikings

Viking Comeback Falls Short, CSU Loses To Butler, 55-51

Viking Comeback Falls Short, CSU Loses To Butler, 55-51
Posted: Jan 25, 2006

Jan. 25, 2006

Final Stats |  Quotes |  Notes

Contact: Brian McCann

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Butler's Brandon Polk set career highs with 29 points and 11 rebounds and the Bulldogs staved off a late Viking rally as Butler outlasted Cleveland State, 55-51 on Wednesday night in the Wolstein Center.

The loss snapped CSU's four-game Horizon League winning streak and denied the Vikings (8-10, 4-4) the opportunity to move all alone into second place in the Horizon League. With Wright State losing at home to UIC tonight, CSU could have jumped past the Raiders in the league standings but instead, the Vikings dropped into a three-way tie with Detroit (4-4) and Butler (3-3) for third place.

"This was a disappointing loss for us tonight because we did not start the game with the intensity that we need to win at this level," head coach Mike Garland said. "You can't wait until you are down by more than 10 points to start playing hard and expect to win. Tonight, we dug too big of a hole and couldn't get out of it.

"We didn't play with the relentless, blue-collar, scrapping style that we did when we won the last four league games. There is one way to win here at Cleveland State, and when we do that, we have a very good basketball team. It's all about maintaining our defensive intensity for 40 minutes and when we do that, we can win every game. When we don't do that, we get games like tonight."

The Viking offense struggled to find consistency in the contest, shooting over 50-percent from the field in the first half (9-16, .563) but making only 10-of-33 second half shots (.303).

Ije Nwankwo led the Vikings with 10 points and grabbed a career-high nine rebounds while at the other end of the court, Polk was hitting on 12-of-21 field goals and five-of-nine free throws en route to besting his previous career high of 27 points set against UIC last year.

Despite the offensive struggles, CSU still had a chance to win over force overtime in the final minute when Raheem Moss connected on a three-pointer to pull the Vikings to within 53-51 with 34 seconds left.

Butler's Julian Betko turned the ball over on the ensuing possession with 23 seconds left but Moss' three-pointer with seven seconds remaining was off the mark and A.J. Graves was fouled after clearing the rebound, making both foul shots with five seconds left to put the game away.

Butler seemed intent on helping the Vikings rally from a 14-point second half deficit, making just two of its eight free throw attempts in the final five minutes leading up to Graves last second effort.

Butler nearly led from wire-to-wire, answering an opening basket by Bullock by running off eight straight points to take the lead for good.

Polk started the run with a driving basket inside and he was quickly followed by three-pointers by A.J. Graves and Bruce Horan, putting Butler ahead, 8-2 just 2:02 into the contest.

Those would be the only three-pointers of the first half as the Bulldogs used a patient offense to keep the Vikings at bay. Butler, which leads the league in three-pointers, elected to take advantage of one-on-one scoring opportunities inside, scoring 20 of its 30 first half points in the lane.

The Vikings would close to within four (18-14) on a three-pointer by Steve Gansey with 11:24 left, but the Bulldogs would eventually extend the lead to as many as 11 on a Polk layup with 1:38 left.

The second half started slowly for CSU as Butler pushed the lead to 44-30 with 12:48 left when Betko scored in the lane.

The Vikings could not come any closer than five points until the final minutes as Butler's patient offense ran milked the clock.

Polk put the Bulldogs ahead, 53-46, with 1:50 left when he connected on a base line jumped and although CSU would eventually come within a field goal of forcing overtime, the Vikings would make only two of its final seven shots to effectively slow the rally.

"We had our chances, but they just didn't go down for us tonight," Garland said. "But the bottom line is that we should have never been in that position to begin with."

The Vikings, who are now just 1-3 at home in league play, will host Youngstown State beginning at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday night (Jan. 28) in the Wolstein Center.