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Viking Defense Busts Delaware, 52-40

Viking Defense Busts Delaware, 52-40
Posted: Feb 18, 2006

Feb. 18, 2006

Final Stats |  Quotes |  Notes

Contact: Brian McCann

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- For the second straight game, the Viking defense proved to be the difference as CSU held Delaware to 30-percent shooting, forced 19 turnovers and had a decisive rebounding advantage as Cleveland State upended Delaware, 52-40, in a BracketBusters pool game on Saturday in the Wolstein Center.

The win, CSU's second, pushed the Vikings record to 10-15 this year, giving them one more win than they had during the entire 2004-05 season. Delaware dropped to 8-18.

J'Nathan Bullock was the lone Viking to finish in double figures, scoring 17 points with a career-high matching 10 rebounds for his second career double-double. Calvin Cannon led the Blue Hens with 11 points.

"This is another example that when our defense gets going and follows our game plan, good things happen," CSU head coach Mike Garland said. "We imposed our will on them defensively tonight and stopped them from doing the things that they like to do offensively."

Delaware forward Harding Nana, who entered the game averaging 19 points and 11 rebounds, was harassed all defensively all night, making just three of his eight field goal attempts en route to scoring a season low six points with seven rebounds while playing all 40 minutes.

"Patrick (Tatham), Frashon (McGee) and Ije (Nwankwo) were told all week in practice that if we wanted to win this game, they were going to have to shut down Nana," Garland said. "They took that as a challenge and came through tonight."

The game was decided in an 11-minute period around halftime as the Vikings limited the Blue Hens to just two points as the Vikings went from trailing 16-12 to leading, 23-18, just 1:54 into the second half.

"That was an important defensive stretch for us," Garland said. "We've had enough games this season where we lost our focus late in the first half and allowed teams to take the lead for good. The opposite was true tonight as our defense helped us to get stronger and stronger."

Delaware closed to within 23-21 on a three-pointer by Rulon Washington with 17:43 left, but a basket inside by Bullock and a three-pointer by Steve Gansey pushed the lead back to seven points. The Vikings would never lead by less than five points the rest of the way, lading by as many as 11, 47-36 with 2:13 left.

"One of the most important things about playing good defense is that it makes it hard for teams to come back on you," Garland said.

Cleveland State did the little thing well. The Vikings shot .750 from the line (9-12) and limited the Blue Hens to just two free throw attempts, those coming with 1:54 left in the game.

With Bullock grabbing a game-high 10 rebounds and McGee adding seven, CSU had a 40-33 rebounding advantage.

More importantly, the Vikings limited Delaware to .320 shooting (16-53), including just six-for-27 from beyond the arc, en route to letting up a season-low 40 points.

The Vikings controlled play for most of the first half, but never led by more than six points.

CSU scored the first six points of the game, four coming on free throws by J'Nathan Bullock and the final points on a Frashon McGee put-back with 16:48 left.

Delaware came right back, running off the next eight points, six coming on back-to-back treys by Sam McMahon and Calvin Cannon, to pull ahead, 8-6, with 15:09 remaining.

Nwankwo scored the next six points for CSU to put the Vikings ahead, 12-11, but the Blue Hens countered with a three-pointer from Herb Courtney and a perimeter field goal from Harding Nana to take a 16-12 lead with 8:43 left.

Victor Morris scored in the lane to pull CSU to within 16-14 at the 8:27 mark. Neither team would score for more than five minutes, with Carlos English giving CSU the lead for the remainder of the half on a three-pointer with 3:41 left.

The Blue Hen drought would continue, eventually reaching 8:20 with the Vikings pulling ahead for good, 21-16, on baskets by Morris and Renard Fields.

McMahon would finally end the 9-0 Viking scoring run on a jumper with 19 seconds left in the half, sending CSU to the locker room with a 21-18 lead.

The Vikings remain at home for their final two regular season games of the year, needing wins over both UIC on Wednesday (Feb. 22) and UW-Green Bay on Saturday (Feb. 25) to host a first round game in the Horizon League Championship on March 1.