Feb. 8, 2011
Contact: Brian McCann
DETROIT, Mich. - Norris Cole scored 27 points, 18 of which came in the second half, but it was not enough as Detroit became the first team to shoot better than 50-percent against the Vikings, upending Cleveland State, 81-78 on Monday night in Calihan Hall on the Detroit campus.
The loss drops the Vikings (21-4) into a second place tie in the Horizon League standings with Wright State with a 10-4 record, percentage points behind Valparaiso (9-3). Detroit moves to 14-12 overall and 8-6 in league play.
Cole led four Vikings in double figures by recording his 13th 20-point game of the year, adding seven assists and six rebounds. Aaron Pogue and Jeremy Montgomery added 15 points each with Pogue grabbing eight rebound and going seven-for-eight from the foul line. Trey Harmon bounced back from two single digit games over the weekend to score 13 points.
Nick Minnerath led Detroit with 26 points, going 10-for-14 from the field, while Eli Holman came off the bench to score 17 points with 11 rebounds and Chris Blake added 13 points.
"We didn't play very well tonight, especially when it counted," CSU head coach Gary Waters said. "We let Detroit have entirely too many good scoring opportunities all night long, especially in the paint.
"When the game was on the line, we put together a couple of really good defensive stands, but after we forced them to take bad shots, we didn't close out the possession by rebounding and that allowed Detroit to get easy baskets off the offensive glass.
"This is unfortunate because despite our loss to Butler over the weekend, we were still in a position to win the regular season title and host the tournament. Now, the only thing we control is the ability to get the No. 2 seed and we will need a lot of help to host the tournament."
The game featured four ties and nine lead changes, the last coming when Holman put back a missed free throw with 4:03 left to give the Titans a 68-67 lead.
Holman took over after that, scoring six of Detroit's final 13 points with the rest coming on free throws. It was his tip in with 57 seconds left that gave the Titans a 76-71 lead.
Cole countered with a three-pointer to pull CSU to within 76-74 with 47 seconds left and the Vikings appeared to have stopped Detroit on the ensuing possession when Ray McCallum, Jr's fadeaway jumper was short, but Minnerath grabbed the offensive rebound and was fouled, converting one of the two free throws to push the lead back to 77-74 with 20 seconds left.
The Vikings had a chance to tie but Cole's three-pointer, which was closely contested, was off the mark with Pogue grabbing the offensive rebound. He was fouled before he could get the shot up, making the first of two free throws to cut the deficit to 77-75 with 10 seconds left.
Holman grabbed the rebound when Pogue missed the second free throw and was quickly fouled, but he converted both charity tosses to make it a 79-75 game with nine seconds left.
Cole refused to give up, banking in a three-pointer with 0.8 seconds left to cut the lead back to 79-78. Blake was fouled on the inbounds, making two free throws, and CSU had one last chance to tie the game but Cole's three-point heave from beyond mid-court was blocked by Holman to end the game.
"I feel real bad for Norris because that was quite simply one of the best performances that I have ever seen during my coaching career," Waters said. "He fought off a double-team all night to score 27 points, hand out seven assists and then hold his player (Chase Simon), who averaged almost 25 points in his last two games to three-for-nine shooting and just 10 points. What an effort."
Simon was the only Titan who didn't shoot well as Detroit made 29 of its 57 field goal attempts to shoot .509 from the field, snapping CSU's school record streak of holding opponents under .500 shooting at 25 games. That was the only hot shooting that Detroit had as the Titans were just four-for-12 from three-point (.333) and 19-for-30 (.633) from the line.
Cleveland State had one of its best shooting nights of the year, going 29-for-56 from the field (.518), make eight three-pointers and shoot .857 from the line (12-14).
The difference in the game may have been the productivity of the reserves as Detroit out-scored CSU, 22-0 in bench points.
"We can't win consistently unless we get production from our bench," Waters said. "To be out-scored like we did tonight is a difference maker."
The first half decided nothing as both teams had leads of seven or more points but couldn't hold them in a half in which both sides shot better than 50-percent from the field.
Detroit came out fast, opening a 12-5 lead (16:20) behind the play of McCallum, Jr. and Minnerath, who combined to score nine of the first dozen points.
But McCallum picked up his second foul at the 17:06 mark and was forced to the bench.
The Vikings responded with Pogue scoring four points and Cole, Montgomery and Harmon a basket each as CSU ran off eight straight points to take a 13-12 lead (14:35).
With CSU leading 18-17 (11:26), the Vikings put on an 11-1 burst over the next three minutes to take a 29-19 lead (8:36). Tim Kamczyc started the spurt with a three-pointer and Harmon quickly followed with a breakaway layup following a steal. Cole finished the run, connecting on three short range jumpers.
The Titans were strong down the stretch as Minnerath keyed a 6-0 run over the final 2:36 to even the score at halftime.
After playing three games in the last five days, the Vikings will use the rest of the week to prepare for their next contest, a 2:00 p.m. home meeting with Youngstown State on Saturday (Feb. 5) that will be televised as part of the Horizon League Game of the Week package on SportsTime Ohio. The game is a doubleheader with the CSU women's team taking on Butler at approximately 4:00 p.m.
