Dec. 13, 2008
Final Stats
Contact: Brian McCann
POUGHKEEPSIE, NY -- After struggling offensively in three games last week, the week-long break for final exams was the perfect prescription as Cleveland State shot a season-high 56-percent from the field in a 66-47 rout of Marist on Saturday night in the McCann Center on the Marist campus.
The win snaps a two-game losing streak for CSU, allowing the Vikings to improve to 6-4 while Marist slips to 3-6.
"We focused all week in practice on improving things offensively, and it showed tonight," CSU head coach Gary Waters said. "The difference between tonight and last week is that we made our layups tonight.
"I thought we came out with a lot of energy and ready to play. We turned in another strong defensive effort but we were more focused offensively which led to us completing plays."
J'Nathan Bullock led three Vikings in double figures with 11 points and eight rebounds while Chris Moore and D'Aundray Brown added 10 points each. George Tandy continued his strong play off the bench by scoring nine points with a game-high nine rebounds. Ryan Schneider led Marist with 14 points.
Although the Vikings took control of the game early, it wasn't until CSU ran off 11 straight points in a three-minute span around halftime that the visiting Vikings put the contest away.
After Marist had trimmed a 17-point CSU lead to just five, 27-22, with 1:30 left, the Vikings closed the half with a flourish. Bullock scored to push the lead back to five and after Tandy drew a charge on Marist' DeJuan Goodwin, Cedric Jackson closed the half with a buzzer-beating three-pointer to send CSU to the locker room with a 32-22 lead.
The run continued in the second half when Brown scored inside on CSU's opening possession and then steals by Jackson and Bullock led to transition layups by Brown and Moore to extend the lead to 38-22 just 1:02 into the second half.
Marist could not come back.
"It isn't that first run that decides the game, it is always the second one," Waters said. "I knew that Marist would challenge us once we got the lead so it was important that we cut that run off as quickly as possible and reassert our control."
The Red Foxes would come no closer than 11 points the rest of the way with the Viking lead growing to as many 25 (63-38 with 3:39 left) before Waters cleared the bench.
One key to the victory was the play of CSU centers Moore and Tandy, who continually made mid-range jump shots while combining to score 19 points with 12 rebounds.
The opening five minutes of the first half featured six lead changes, the last coming when Bullock buried a three-pointer with 14:47 left that put CSU ahead, 9-7 and ignited a 13-0 run over the next five minutes that put the Vikings ahead, 19-7.
Marist ended the rally when Kaylen Gregory made one of two free throws with 10:04 left, but the Vikings countered with six straight points to take a 25-8 advantage with 8:28 left.
But just as quickly as the Viking offense got things going, the well ran dry as Marist scored the next dozen points to pull to within 25-20 with 3:40 left, setting up the decisive Viking run.
After shooting a combined 29-percent in losses to Butler and West Virginia last week, CSU found the mark, making 28 of its 50 field goal attempts to top the 50-percent shooting mark for the third time this season.
At the other end of the court, the Viking defense was stellar, limiting the Red Foxes to .347 shooting (17-49). It was the fifth straight game that CSU held their opponent to under 40-percent from the field.
The 47 points are the second lowest total allowed by CSU this year and it is the sixth straight game that the Vikings held an opponent to less than 60 point, a feat last accomplished during a six-game span bridging the 1962-63 and 1963-64 seasons.
The Vikings have little time to savor the victory, traveling to Syracuse in the morning and facing the 16th-ranked Orange on Monday night (Dec. 15) in the Carrier Dome.
