Nov. 19, 2009
Final Stats | Quotes | Notes
Contact: Brian McCann
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CLEVELAND, Ohio - Norris Cole scored a career-high 38 points to lead Cleveland State to a 78-64 victory over Florida A&M, on Thursday night in the Wolstein Center in a first round game of the Cancun Challenge.
The Vikings improved to 2-1 overall, while FAMU slipped to 0-3.
Cole hit 11-of-16, including 3-of-4 from three point and hit all 13 of his free throw attempts. His 38 points was the eighth highest in school history and the most since J'Nathan Bullock scored 39 points vs. Green Bay on Feb. 11, 2008.
Cole scored 27 of his points in the second half, helping him to his ninth career 20-point game and his first 30-point outburst.
In addition, his effort from the free throw line tied the school record for free throw percentage and it was tied for the third most attempts.
""Norris' play today was tremendous tonight," head coach Gary Waters said. "He controlled the offense and he scored some points and that shows that good things are ahead for him if he can continue to do those two things. He took control of the game out there and played the best that I have ever seen him play this year. Not only did he play well offensively, but he defended against their best player. But we can't win against the big boys with Norris scoring 38."
Trevon Harmon added 14 points and Aaron Pogue finished with a double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds.
A Pogue jumper 21 seconds in gave the Vikings a quick 2-0 lead, but Christopher Walker hit a three-pointer at the 18:00 mark to give the Panthers their only lead of the contest (3-2).
From there, CSU ran off six straight points, including back-to-back jumpers by Harmon to take an 8-3 lead.
Leading by just one (12-11) with 12:08 to play, the Vikings used a 19-3 run to assume a 31-14 lead with 5:51 to play in the half on a Cole jumper.
FAMU did manage to cut the deficit to 11 points (38-27) at the half
A Cole jumper to open the second half pushed the CSU lead back to 13 points (40-27), but a 13-2 run by the Rattlers cut the Viking lead all the way down to two points (42-40) with just under 16 minutes to play.
But Cole hit a three-pointer on the next possession, D'Aundray Brown had a tip-in and Cole added a pair of jumpers and two free throws to push the advantage back to 13 points (53-40) with 11:23 to play.
The Rattlers managed to cut the lead back to as little as seven points (65-58) with 3:23 left in the game, but back-to-back three pointers from Cole and Jared Cunningham gave the Vikings an 11 point lead and sealed the game.
"Jared is our best three-point shooter and that will come as the season goes on because he has to understand when to take the shot," Waters said. "And once he understands that, he is going to hit some more big three's."
The Vikings came into the contest with teams shooting .588 from the field against them, but held the Rattlers to a 19-for-58 (.328) effort from the field, including just 8-of-30 in the first half.
"We have been getting better on defense and have our opponents under 50-percent," Waters said. "Now we have to get it under 42-percent and we'll have it where we want it.
"We know this is a process. We didn't shoot the ball well today. We fouled to many times today and a lot were unnecessary. We did take care of the ball which I liked."
CSU will continue play in the Cancun Challenge on Saturday (Nov. 21) night when the Vikings host Sam Houston State at 7:00 p.m. in the Wolstein Center. The first 1,000 fans to the game will receive a free magnet schedule courtesy of IHOP.
