March 11, 2008
Contact: Brian McCann
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - Playing in the Horizon League Championship for the first time in school-history, Cleveland State came up just short in an attempt to punch its ticket to the NCAA Championship for the first time in 22 years, falling at 10th-ranked Butler, 70-55, on Tuesday night in Hinkle Fieldhouse.
CSU, which advanced to the title game despite being picked to finish ninth in the 10 team Horizon League in the preseason poll, fell to 21-12 with the loss. Butler improved to 29-3 and earned the Horizon League's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship.
It is the third time in school-history that the Vikings have finished as league tournament runner-up (1983-84 & 1986-87).
"I am extremely proud of my team," CSU head coach Gary Waters said. "We didn't play all that well, especially at the start, but we fought back into it. We took their best punch and refused to give up. It really was anybody's game.
"The game was decided when Cedric (Jackson) went down. We were trailing by just two but anytime you lose a kid like Cedric who means so much to this team, it staggers you. We weren't able to make enough adjustments against a good team like Butler.
"I don't want to take anything away from Butler because they played like a champion and it has been a special year for them, but if you took one of their leaders, like Mike Green, out of the lineup in the opening minutes of the second half, the game probably would have taken on a different look. He means that much to that team."
"Now it is time for us to regroup because as I told the team in the locker room, we have a lot of basketball ahead of us and we need to get ready for when the NIT calls on Sunday night," Waters added.
J'Nathan Bullock, who was the lone Viking to earn a spot on the all-tournament team, led CSU with 21 points and nine boards, coming up one rebound short of his 13th career double-double.
Joe Davis and Norris Cole chipped in nine points apiece off the bench, while Cole also added six rebounds.
Mike Green, who was named the tournament MVP, recorded a double-double with game-highs in points (24) and rebounds (13). Matt Howard added 16 points and Drew Streicher posted 11 en route to a spot on the all-tournament team.
Butler opened the contest by scoring the first seven points of the game to force Waters into a quick 30 second timeout just over two minutes into the game.
George Tandy finally got the Vikings on the board as he converted a layup following the timeout with 17:24 to play in the half. However, the Bulldogs used a 13-6 run, including back-to-back-to-back three-pointers from A.J. Graves, Pete Campbell and Drew Streicher to take their largest lead of the half (20-6) with 13:10 to go.
From that point, the Vikings began to creep slowly back into the game and managed to knot the score at 34-34 with 1:50 to play in the half on a pair of free throws from Cedric Jackson.
The Bulldogs closed the half with a pair of free throws each by Green and A.J. Graves to take a four-point advantage (38-34) into the locker room.
Butler took just 20 shots from the floor in the first half, hitting nine, including 4-of-11 (.364) from three-point. But it was at the free throw line where the Bulldogs did a majority of their damage as Butler hit 16-of-19 (.842) from the charity stripe.
In contrast, the Vikings went to the line just eight times, hitting seven. CSU went 13-of-35 (.371) from the field in the opening stanza, but hit just 1-of-10 from three-point.
The second half could not have started worse for CSU as Jackson, a second team All-Horizon League selection, went down with an injury just 2:13 into the half and the Vikings down four. He returned to the game with just under six minutes left and the Vikings trailing, 60-44.
Following the Jackson injury, Streicher hit a three-pointer, but a three-pointer by Bullock and a layup in transition from D'Aundray Brown off a Cole assist sliced the Viking deficit to two points (43-41) with 16:34 to go.
However, Butler scored the next eight points to push the lead back to double figures (51-41) with 10:36 to go.
A traditional three-point play by Bullock on the next possession cut the Bulldog lead back to seven points, but that would be as close as CSU would get as Howard hit a free throw, Green made a layup in transition and Streicher and Zach Hahn hit back-to-back three-pointers for a 16-point (60-44) Butler lead with 6:11 to go.
CSU shot .364 (20-55) from the field, hitting just 2-of-16 (.125) from three-point. The Vikings did out-rebound Butler, 32-28.
Butler finished the game 19-of-43 (.442) from the floor, including 8-of-21 (.381) from three-point, but the biggest different came at the free throw line where the Bulldogs hit 24-of-32 compared to 13-of-19 for CSU.
The Bulldogs also converted 14 Viking turnovers into 23 points.
The Vikings will now play the waiting game until bids to the NCAA and NIT are announced on Sunday (March 16) evening.
