Nov. 10, 2007
Contact: Brian McCann
TAMPA, Fla. - The tone was set early, almost 80 minutes before tip-off.
When the Vikings took the court for the first time on Friday night in the Sun Dome, the USF fans, confused by the green uniforms won by CSU, briefly cheered for the visitors from Cleveland.
At the end of the night, it was the small following of Viking fans that was doing the cheering as CSU rallied from a nine-point second half deficit to claim a 73-70 win over USF in an opening round game in the Glenn Wilkes Classic.
J'Nathan Bullock led the Vikings with a career high 26 points and five steals, adding 10 rebounds for his eighth career double-double. Cedric Jackson added 18 points, 14 coming in the second half.
Soloman Bozeman led the Bulls with 19 points while Jesus Verdejo added 17 and Dominique Jones chipped in with 13.
The win was the first-ever victory over a member of the Big East Conference for the Vikings.
"We won this game with heart, defense and free throw shooting," head coach Gary Waters said. "When you play on the road, especially in a Big East arena, you have to come ready to play, you have to play defense and in the end, you have to make your foul shots."
"I thought we did a nice job of taking the play to them. There were a lot of fouls in the first half but once we settled down, we were able to do the things at both ends of the court that we wanted to.
After leading for the majority of the first half, CSU fell behind early in the second half and was forced to play catch-up. Trailing 67-59 with 4:29 left, CSU called timeout and Waters challenged the young squad.
"I told them that the game was theirs if they wanted it," Waters said. "But to win it, they were going to have to play defense."
Play defense they did as they allowed the Bulls to score on just one of its final eight possessions as CSU outscored the Bulls, 14-3 to claim the win.
The Vikings took the lead for good, 69-67 with 1:09 left when Chris Moore, who was making his CSU debut after transferring from UC Santa Barbara, tipped in a missed shot. Moore finished with nine points and five rebounds.
Cedric Jackson extended the lead to 71-67 with 44 seconds left when he when coast-to-coast off of a steal for a lay-up.
South Florida pulled to within 71-70 on a three-pointer by Bozeman with 35.1 seconds left. It was Bozeman's fifth trey in seven attempts on the evening.
USF elected not to foul on the ensuing CSU possession but Bullock was forced to shoot after being trapped on the baseline and USF got the ball back with 8.6 seconds left.
Dominique Jones drove to the basket and was fouled with 6.7 seconds left, but he missed both free throws and CSU cleared the rebound.
Bullock was quickly fouled, making both free throws with 4.6 seconds left. The free throws allowed him to tie a school record by going 13-for-13 from the foul line, becoming the seventh player to be perfect with at least 10 attempts in a game with the 13 being the third-highest total.
A desperation three by Verdejo was short at the buzzer.
The game was the season opener for both teams, pitting two former Kent State head coaches. Waters coached the Golden Flashes from 1996-2001 before leaving for Rutgers. Heath took over for the 2001-02 season, leading KSU to the Elite Eight in his only season before leaving for Arkansas.
The Vikings jumped out quickly, opening an 11-2 advantage with 14:43 left. USF would rally to even the score at 22-22 with 8:12 remaining, one of six first half ties. The Bulls would lead by as many as three in the opening half (30-27, 5:40), taking a 36-35 edge into the locker room thanks in part to Mohamed Esseghir layup at the buzzer.
Plagued by first half foul trouble - CSU had six players with two or more fouls in the first half resulting in 21 free throws by USF - the Vikings struggled to get the lead back, falling behind by seven with 10:44 left (59-52) and by nine with 7:05 left (65-56).
Two free throws by Chris Howard pushed the USF lead to 67-59 with Waters' calling timeout to issue the ultimatum on defense that turned the game around for CSU.
The Vikings have little time to celebrate the victory, traveling to Fairfax, Va. for a Tuesday night (Nov. 13) meeting with George Mason.
