March 3, 2012
Contact: Greg Murphy
VALPARAISO, Ind. - D'Aundray Brown scored 17 points in his return to action, but second-seeded Cleveland State fell to third-seeded Detroit, 63-58, in the Horizon League semifinals on Saturday night in the Athletics and Recreation Center.
Brown, who had missed seven of the previous eight games, made a triumphant return, adding seven rebounds and two steals. Tim Kamczyc scored 11 points, while Jeremy Montgomery added 11 points and three assists.
The loss dropped CSU to 22-10 this year, while Detroit improved to 21-13 and advanced to Tuesday's championship game.
Spurred on by the return of Brown, who missed seven of the last eight games, the Vikings took a 17-13 lead nine minutes into the game.
It was the play of Brown on both ends of the court that helped CSU take the early lead. On his second offensive possession, Brown took the ball strong to the hole, drew a foul and made both free throws. He also came up with two steals and took a charge on the defensive end, playing 13 minutes in the first half.
However, CSU remained stuck on 17 points for close to four minutes until Brown hit a three-pointer that gave the Vikings a 20-14 lead at the 7:46 mark.
But Detroit answered with 12 straight points as the Vikings continued to come up empty on the offensive end as the Titans took a 26-20 lead with 3:41 to play in the half. A Brown free throw shot broke another four-plus minute scoring drought for the Vikings and made it 26-21.
Jason Calliste followed with a three-pointer and Eli Holman added a tip-in to extend Detroit's lead to 10 points (31-21) with 58 seconds to go in the half. However, Anton Grady made two free throws and Tim Kamczyc converted a layup just before the buzzer to draw CSU back within six (31-25) at the half.
Kamczyc's bucket came after a wild final 10 seconds to the half.
The play started when Charlie Lee came up with a long rebound out near midcourt with 10.9 seconds left. He heaved the ball toward the basket and it hit the backboard. Brown came up with the loose ball, saving it before it went out of bounds on the end line and tipped it to Grady who got it back to Lee with about four seconds left.
Kamczyc, who was running the middle of the floor, was the recipient of a Lee feed and uncontested layup just before the final buzzer.
CSU opened the second half on a 10-1 run to slice the Titan lead down to two points (35-33) with 16:18 left, but Detroit came right back, scoring 12 of the next 14 points to regain a 12 point lead (47-35) with 12 minutes to go.
But the second-seeded Vikings, who had not played a game since last week due to the double bye, stormed back with a 14-2 run of their own to knot the contest at 49-49 with just over three minutes to play on two free throws by Brown after a Titan intentional foul. CSU got the ball back, but a turnover led to a Chase Simon dunk to give Detroit a two point advantage (51-49).
Another CSU turnover led to a pair of free throws by Detroit to extend the lead to four.
Brown answered with a jumper on the other end, but Donovan Foster hit a jumper on the other end to push the lead back to four (55-51) with just over a minute to play. Aaron Pogue answered on the other end, but another CSU foul sent Ray McCallum to the line where he hit two to push the lead back to four with 51 seconds left.
CSU turned the ball over on the next possession and was forced to foul and Jason Calliste's two free tosses pushed the lead to six (59-53) with 29 seconds left.
Montgomery banked in a three-pointer and after McCallum split a pair of free throws, Ike Nwamu was fouled on a three-pointer, but was only able to hit two of the three free throws to bring the Vikings back within two (60-58) with nine seconds left.
Forced to foul again, the Vikings sent McCallum back to the line where he split the pair, giving CSU one final chance, but Charlie Lee's three-point attempt from the top of the key was blocked by LaMarcus Lowe with five seconds left and the Titans ran out the clock.
CSU limited Detroit to 40-percent shooting (20-50), but shot just 20-of-56 (.357) for the game, including 3-of-13 (.231) from three-point. The Titans held a 36-31 advantage on the glass and scored 21 points off CSU's 14 turnovers.
The Vikings will now wait and see if they will receive an invite to a postseason tournament.
