Dec. 11, 2004

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Contact: Brian McCann

CLEVELAND -- DeAndre Hayes scored 20 points, including 14 in the second half to lead Kent State back from a 19-point second half deficit to claim a 71-68 win over Cleveland State before a Homecoming crowd of 4,040 in the Convocation Center.

The game was a tale of two halves as the Vikings dominated at both ends of the court for the first 23 minutes in building a 48-29 lead before going cold over the final 17 minutes.

"The things that we did to get the lead was the very thing that hurt us in the end," head coach Mike Garland said. "We extended our defense to apply pressure to the perimeter and Kent State adjusted to it after the half and took the ball to the basket."

"Offensively, we had some very good shots that normally go down for us but for some reason, they just didn't go in."

Patrick Tatham led Cleveland State with 16 points, one of his career high, adding a game-high eight rebounds with three assists and a pair of steals. Omari Westley added 14 points and six rebounds and freshman Mike Redell was 10-of-11 from the foul line for a career-high 10 points.

Hayes was eight-of-13 from the field to lead a balanced Golden Flash attack with 20 points while Scott Cutley added 13 points, Jason Edwin 12 and Kevin Warzynski 10.

The Viking bench outscored Kent State, 31-9.

The game appeared to be headed for a blowout when Cleveland State scored the first nine points of the second half to take a 48-29 lead with 17:26 left. Defensively, the Vikings forced turnovers on each of the Golden Flashes first four possessions of the half while scoring each time at the other end.

Victor Morris canned a three-pointer to start the run and then fed Patrick Tatham for any easy basket inside on the next trip down the floor. Tatham found Raheem Moss for a lay-up before closing the burst with a pair of free throws.

But Kent State came right back, using a 14-0 run to cut a 53-37 CSU advantage to just 53-50 with 9:36 left. The Golden Flashes, who were 15-of-26 from the field in the second half (.577), attacked the Vikings offensively, continually penetrating through the CSU perimeter pressure to score 24 of their 42 second half points inside.

As the Golden Flashes caught fire offensively, the Vikings in turn struggled, going 9:19 without a field goal at one point in the second half, scoring all of its nine points during that span from the free throw line.

Despite the struggles, when Modibo Niakate nailed a three-pointer with 5:04 left to end the shooting draught, the Vikings had a 65-60 lead.

Cleveland State was able to hold onto the lead until the final minute as Kent State took the lead for good, 69-68 on a Kevin Warzynski field goal with :59 left.

The Vikings would not score again. Niakate misfired on a three-point attempt with 29 seconds left and Hayes went to the line at the other end and made one of two free throws.

With CSU down 70-68, Niakate missed again from three-point with four seconds left and Warzynski was fouled on the rebound, subsequently making one of the two free throws to push the lead to 71-68.

The Vikings had one final chance to force overtime, but Mike Redell's halfcourt jumper at the buzzer was off the mark.

"I don't think that any of us were surprised to be up," Redell said. "But then we stopped playing on defense and that was a big part of what made us successful. In the first half, we were getting up on defense, getting steals and our energy was up."

The first half was all CSU and Garland's Vikings used a full court pressure defense to take a 39-29 lead at the end of the first half.

The opening minutes of the game featured four lead changes. Kent State tied the game at 13-13 with 13:39 left on a pair of Scott Cutley free throws, but the Vikings stormed out, going on a15-5 run over the next 4:09 to take a 28-18 lead.

Kent State countered with its own run, scoring seven straight points to pull to within 28-25 with 7:26 left in the half.

Back came Cleveland State again, scoring 11 of the next 13 points to lead by as many as 12 (39-27) before settling in with a 39-29 halftime lead.