Feb. 5, 2010
Contact: Brian McCann
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CHICAGO, Illinois - Trey Harmon scored 17 points and D'Aundray Brown added a career-high 13 points as Cleveland State led from wire to wire to defeat UIC, 74-63, on Thursday night in the UIC Pavilion. In the process, the Vikings moved into third place in the Horizon League standings, a half-game behind Wright State for second.
The win was CSU's fourth straight, allowing the Vikings to improve to 11-12 overall and 7-4 in league action. UIC lost its ninth straight, falling to 5-17 overall and 1-11 in league play.
"We came out with a focus, played hard and made smart plays," CSU head coach Gary Waters said. "We were very efficient offensively, making the extra pass in order to get a better shot and it really showed in our shooting percentage.
"I thought we lost our focus early in the second half and tried to do some things that really isn't us. That allowed UIC to get back in the game and make the game a lot closer than it needed to be down the stretch."
The Vikings' four-guard offense played well again tonight, combining to score 58 of the Vikings' 74 points. Harmon went six-for-12 from the field to lead CSU with 17 points, adding five assists while Brown matched his career-high with 15 points, going four-for-six from the field and seven-for-nine from the line, adding a game-high nine rebounds. He fell one rebound short of his third double-double in five games.
Norris Cole battled early game foul trouble to record his second career double-double, finishing with 13 points and 10 assists. Chicago native Jeremy Montgomery scored 11 of his 13 points in the first half before leaving the game with a leg injury midway through the second half.
"We executed our offense very well tonight and that is a good sign because we had not been doing that on the road this year," Waters said.
Jeremy Buttel led UIC with 17 points and nine rebounds while Zavion Neely added 17 points and Robo Kreps 11.
The Vikings jumped out to an early lead as Brown knocked a short jumper and Harmon drilled a three-pointer from the right side to put CSU ahead, 5-0. After a pair of Kreps free throws, Aaron Pogue, who had eight points and seven rebounds, broke loose for a dunk inside to make it 7-2.
A Buttell trey closed UIC to within 7-5 (16:00), but a Jared Cunningham layup, a Montgomery trey and a Brown basket inside extended the CSU lead to 14-5 with 14:18 left.
The Flames closed to within 24-19 with 8:31 left, but UIC would go without a field goal for the next six minutes, allowing CSU to go on a 14-3 run to extend the lead to 38-22 with 2:52 left.
The Vikings eventually led, 44-29, at half, but a series of CSU turnovers early in the second half allowed the Flames to open the second half with a 14-4 burst to pull to within 48-43 just six minutes into the second half
But that would be as close as UIC would come as the Vikings used two baskets from Cole, one from Montgomery and a pair of free throws from Brown to push the lead back into double figures, 56-45 with 11:26 left.
UIC could come no closer than seven the rest of the way as CSU's patient offense whittled the clock down and allowed them to close out the win.
"Even though we lost our focus for a while there, we were able to regroup, put things back together and take care of the ball down the stretch. That showed great character," Waters added.
The Vikings shot an impressive .528 from the field (28-53) and limited the Flames to just .357 from the field (20-56). CSU had assists on 22 of its 28 baskets and committed just 10 turnovers to claim its fifth straight win over UIC.
With Wright State winning at Valparaiso and Detroit losing at Butler on Thursday night, CSU moves into third place in the league standings with a 7-4 record, a half-game behind second place Wright State (8-4) and a half-game ahead of fourth pace Detroit (7-5).
CSU remains in Chicago to close this brief road swing with a 3:00 p.m. CST contest at Loyola on Saturday, Feb 6.
