Nov. 15, 2010

Final Stats

Contact: Greg Murphy

BUFFALO, N.Y. - Janelle Adams scored a career-high 23 points and Shawnita Garland and Shalonda Winton added 18 each as the Vikings completed a two-game sweep through New York with a 78-69 win at Buffalo on Monday night in Alumni Arena.

The Vikings moved to 2-0 for the first time since 1998-99, while Buffalo fell to 1-1.

"It's a great feeling to be able to go home with two wins," head coach Kate Peterson Abiad said. "We knew coming into the season that we had the talent to be successful and it was just a matter of putting the pieces together and learning to play together."

Buffalo scored the first eight points of the game, racing out to an 8-0 lead less than three minutes in before Takima Keane hit a three-pointer at the 16:51 mark to get the Vikings on the board. The Bulls would regain a six point lead (13-7) on a pair of free throws by Jessica Fortman with 13:03 to play, but a 9-2 CSU run gave the Vikings their first lead of the night when Keane hit a baseline jumper with 11:00 left to make it 16-15.

Keane also hit a three-pointer in the run, while Winton added a jumper and Adams made two free throws.

"They started out quick, but I didn't want to use a timeout early," Peterson Abiad said. "I know that we are tough enough to withstand things like that and knew we just had to calm down a little and let the game come to us."

With the score tied at 20-20, the Vikings used a strong 10-2 run to take their largest lead of the half (30-22) when Winton finished with a layup off a Shawnita Garland assist on a 2-on-1 break.

The lead would stay eight points, 34-26, as the teams headed to the locker room for halftime.

The Vikings received solid contributions from a number of players off the bench in the first half as Destinee Blue was limited to just three minutes as she picked up two fouls. Keane replaced her and scored 10 first half points in seven minutes before being forced to go to the bench with two fouls.

Kaila Montgomery and Ondrea Hughes also gave the Vikings a boost in the first 20 minutes.

Montgomery, who was seeing her first extensive action in a Viking uniform after working hard to come back from a knee injury, contributed three rebounds, a steal, a blocked shots and several defensive stops in seven minutes, while Hughes was just as big, hitting a key three-pointer with a rebound and solid defense in eight minutes.

"It was great to get that kind of effort out of our bench and that's what we are going to need this season," Peterson Abiad said. "T.K. came in and hit a three to get us going and was five-for-five from the field. Kaila gave us some good minutes and Ondrea hit a key three-pointer at the end of the half. That was nice to see."

CSU maintained an eight point edge through the seven minutes of the second half, leading 48-40 with just under 14 minutes to play. But that's when Buffalo started to make a run.

The Bulls went on a 14-5 run over the next six minutes to take a 54-53 lead with 8:25 left.

But Keane hit another three-pointer, her third of the game, on the ensuing possession to spark a 13-2 run that helped the Vikings regain a 10 point advantage (66-56) on a Garland three-pointer with 4:57 to play.

Garland was key during the run, scoring seven points with one assist.

She scored 17 of her 18 points in the second half.

"Shawn has been working hard to come back from her knee injury and I thought she took a big step tonight," Peterson Abiad said. "She had a very explosive move to the basket for a layup and I thought that gave her some confidence and really got her going."

The Bulls made one more run, cutting their deficit to four (68-64) with 2:22 to play, but Adams responded with a layup on the other end and the Vikings hit all eight of their free throws down the stretch to seal the win.

For the game, CSU hit 20-of-26 (.769) from the charity stripe.

The Vikings also hit 6-of-18 (.333) from three-point, while Buffalo hit just one of their 17 attempts (.059).

Both teams committed 17 turnovers.

The Vikings will open their home season on Friday (Nov. 19) when the Vikings host Niagara in the Wolstein Center at 7:00 p.m. CSU will raise its 2010 Horizon League Championship banner to the rafters in a pre-game ceremony.