Feb. 22, 2003
CLEVELAND - Loyola's Kevin Clancy made five free throws over the last 23 seconds of the game at Cleveland State Saturday night to help the Ramblers hold off the Vikings 77-72 at Goodman Arena.
Trailing 72-69 after LU's David Bailey scored with 53 seconds left, CSU's Modibo Niakate missed an attempt from behind the arc, but the Ramblers knocked the rebound out of bounds. After a CSU timeout with 33 seconds left, the Vikes turned the ball over and fouled Clancy. He canned both attempts with 23 seconds, making the score 74-69.
On the ensuing possession, the Vikings committed another turnover and fouled Clancy again. After he split the free throws, Percell Coles (Philadelphia, Pa./Simon Gratz) nailed a three with 10 seconds left to cut the lead to 75-72 but Clancy closed out the scoring with two more free throws.
After leading 40-37 at the half, CSU pushed the advantage to as much as 11 points in the second half and kept the Ramblers at bay until the 6:15 mark when Terrance Whiters scored on a lay-up to knot the score at 63-all. Loyola moved out to a four-point lead at 69-65 with 3:51 left but back-to-back jumpers by CSU's Pape Badiane (les Ulis, France/Faith Christian Academy) pulled the Vikings even at 69-all at 2:48. The teams remained scoredless for almost two minutes until Bailey put Loyola up for good.
Modibo Niakate (Paris, France/Hutchinson C.C.) led CSU with 15 points while Jonathan Burge (Cleveland, Ohio/South) popped in 14 markers and Walt Chavis (Steelton, Pa./Steelton-Highspire) added a career-high 12. Loyola's Paul McMillan led all scorers with 16 points while Clancy finished with 14. Bailey, who had averaged over 25 points a game against CSU in his career, was limited to seven.
McMillan also pulled down a game-high 14 rebounds. Niakate led CSU with seven boards. Each team grabbed 36 boards.
CSU shot 45 percent (27-of-60) from the field, including 50 percent (9-of-18) from 3-point-range, while the Ramblers hit 46.8 percent (29-of-62) from the field and 75 percent (15-of-20) from the line.
