Feb. 26, 2005

Final Stats |  Quotes |  Notes

Contact: Brian McCann

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- UW-Milwaukee showed why it won its second straight Horizon League regular season championship, leading wire-to-wire in an 81-59 victory over Cleveland State on Saturday evening in a Senior Day affair at the Wolstein Center.

The loss drops the Vikings to the eighth seed in the upcoming American Family Insurance Horizon League Championship. CSU will open play at No. 5 UIC on Tuesday, March 1 at 7:00 p.m. CST.

"UW-Milwaukee played this game tonight as if it meant something," head coach Mike Garland said of the Panthers, which had already wrapped up the Horizon League regular season title heading into the game. "They played every possession as if they were on a mission and they controlled the tempo of play.

"I thought that for us to challenge for a win tonight that we needed to shoot the ball real well and that didn't happen. (UW-) Milwaukee applied great pressure along the perimeter and forced us to hurry our shots."

CSU's Raheem Moss knocked down four three-pointers en route to a career-high 27 points. He was the only Viking to score more than six. Ed McCants paced the Panthers with 21 points, while Joah Tucker added 16.

Moss' long range shooting allowed him to raise his season three-point total to 71, the ninth-highest single season total in CSU history.

The game was the final home appearance for Viking seniors Walt Chavis and Amadou Koundoul, each of whom were honored in a pre-game ceremony. Chavis finished with six points, four rebounds and four assists, while Koundoul grabbed a career-high nine boards.

UWM shot 55.6 percent (15-27) in the first 20 minutes and led by as much as 18 before taking a 45-33 advantage into the locker room. Tucker and McCants had 12 and 10 points, respectively, while Moss tallied 10 for CSU.

The Panthers pushed the advantage to 20 with a 10-0 burst over the first four minutes of the second half, effectively putting the game out of reach. The lead stayed in between 17 and 22 points as the Vikings shot just 29.7 percent (19-64) for the game.

With the loss, the Vikings finish the regular season at 9-16 overall and 6-10 in the Horizon League. The Panthers improve to 22-5, 14-2 HL.

"I have seen a great improvement in our team from last year," Garland said. "It is hard to get to the top of the mountain when you are stuck in the valley. Last year we were in the valley but we aren't there anymore. I guess you could say that we are in the foothills."