Feb. 16, 2011
Contact: Brian McCann
FAIRBORN, Ohio - Cleveland State's five starters all scored in double figures and accounted for all of the Vikings points as CSU won at Wright State, 74-72, on Wednesday night in Horizon League action.
Aaron Pogue led the Vikings with 18 points, going 8-for-10 from the field, while Norris Cole finished with 16 points, 10 assists and six rebounds. Trey Harmon scored 16 points, while Jeremy Montgomery had 14 and Tim Kamczyc added 10.
The win improves the Vikings to 23-5 overall and moves CSU into first place in the league at 12-4, one half game ahead of Valparaiso (11-4) who lost at Milwaukee (79-76) tonight.
Wright State slipped to 17-12 overall and 10-7 in the league.
"We came down here expecting a defensive battle, but if you look at the stats, it doesn't look like much defense was being played, but it was," head coach Gary Waters said. "This was a hard-fought victory. Wright State made some adjustments from the first time we played and combined with playing at home, they were a much different team. We were fortunate to get away with a win because it wasn't like they played poorly and we just beat them up.
"They did a great job on Norris. They doubled him really hard coming off screens and Norris was smart not to force things. Instead, he found the open man.
"This is our third game in the last week that has gone down to the wire and that's going to help us in postseason. We really hadn't played any close games until (last week at Detroit) and it showed. Now we're getting used to it a little more. It's good to get back into first place, but the last week of league play is going to be an all out war. We can't take anything for granted."
The final four plus minutes proved to be very exciting with both teams making key plays down the stretch. A Norris Cole three pointer from the top of the key with 4:22 to play gave the Vikings their largest lead of the half (65-58).
WSU's Vaughn Duggins recorded a three point play on the other end to slice the Viking lead to 65-61 with 3:55 to play. Neither team would manage to score for nearly two minutes until N'Gai Evans made a layup in transition to pull the Raiders within 65-63 with just over two mintues to play.
After a defensive stop, Evans banked in a three pointer with 1:28 on the clock that gave the Raiders a 66-65 lead. However, Harmon had the answer on the other end, drilling a three pointer from the left wing to put CSU back ahead, 68-66.
A CSU stop gave the Vikings the ball with just over 40 seconds to play and the Raiders fouled Cole who went to the line and sank two free throws for a 70-66 lead. Evans came back quickly with a layup with 14 seconds left, but Montgomery answered with two free throws to keep the lead at four points (72-68).
Evans responded quickly for the Raiders, drilling a three pointer to pull WSU back within one point (72-71) with six seconds left. Forced to foul quickly again, the Raiders again sent Montgomery to the line who calmly sank both free throws for a 74-71 lead.
With no timeouts left, the Raiders threw a long pass down court and Duggins was fouled while trying to make the catch, sending him to the line for a one-and-one with 3.4 seconds left. Duggins made the first and missed the second one intentionally as Cole came up with the rebound and ran out the clock for CSU's 23rd win of the season.
The Raiders jumped out to a quick 5-1 lead three minutes into the contest, but a quick 5-0 spurt by CSU gave the Vikings their first lead of the night (6-5) on a Tim Kamczyc layup with 15:29 to play.
The Vikings lead swelled to 14-10 on a Jeremy Montgomery layup with just under 13 minutes to play in the first half. The Raiders responded with 10 straight points to regain a 20-14 lead, but seven straight points from Cole and a three pointer by Kamczyc put the Vikings back ahead, 24-20, with 6:20 left.
After two more ties in the half, Duggins converted a layup in transition with 43 seconds to go in the half, but Cole answered with a bucket of his own on the other end with four seconds to play in the half that sent CSU into the locker room with a 34-33 lead.
CSU was an efficient 26-of-47 (.553) from the field, hitting 7-of-15 (.467) from three point. The Raiders were almost as good, knocking down .511 (23-45) percent from the field, including 10-of-20 (.500) from three point.
The Vikings are back in action on Sunday (Feb. 20) at 1:00 p.m. when CSU steps out of league play for the final time this season at Old Dominion in a Sears BracketBusters contest. The game can be seen live on ESPN2.
