Feb. 13, 2010

Final Stats

Contact: Greg Murphy

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INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - Kailey Klein scored 29 points and grabbed nine rebounds and Stephaine Crosley added a career-high 18 points, but it wasn't enough as Cleveland State dropped a tough 72-66 decision at Butler in Horizon League action on Saturday afternoon in Hinkle Fieldhouse.

The loss dropped CSU back to .500 overall (12-12) and 7-6 in league play, while the Bulldogs improved to 16-7 overall (9-3 HL).

Klein scored her game-high 29 points on 10-of-20 shooting, including four three-pointers, while Crosley hit 7-of-10 field goals, including her second three-pointer of the season (10th of her career) late in the second half with the shot clock winding down. "Cros was big for us today, especially on the boards," head coach Kate Peterson Abiad said. "She was very active and did a great job of finishing around the basket after crashing the boards.

"I thought this was a very well-played game and both teams played hard. We did a great job on the boards and took good care of the basketball. But we made a few errors down the stretch that they took advantage of and that was the difference in the game. We missed two box outs that they converted for layups and had two key turnovers with less than three minutes left. We have to do a better job of closing out games and playing with a lead in crunch time."

For Klein, it was her fourth straight 20-point game and pushed her career scoring total to 1,930.

However, Klein and Crosley were offset by four Bulldogs who scored in double figures, paced by 16 points and 10 rebounds by Melanie Thornton. Brittany Bowen add 15 points and Alyssa Pittman 13, both off the bench.

The game was tight through the first 10 minutes as there were four ties, the final one coming on a Klein layup with 11:28 on the clock that knotted the contest at 10-10. From there, the Vikings used an 8-2 run to assume their largest lead of the half (18-12) on a Klein three-pointer with 9:29 to play.

However, seven straight points by Butler allowed the Bulldogs to reclaim a 19-18 lead with 8:25 left in the half. Brittany Bowen gave Butler a three-point advantage (21-18) with a layup, but Garland answered on the other end with a three-pointer to knot the game at 21-21, the fifth and final tie of the first half. The Bulldogs went on to score the next six points to take their largest lead of the first stanza, 27-21, with 5:33 left.

However, back-to-back buckets by Shalonda Winton capped a 9-0 CSU run that put the Vikings back on top, 30-27, with 2:41 left in the half, but Butler would close the half by scoring nine of the final 11 points, taking a 36-32 lead into the locker room.

CSU battled back to tie the game for the seventh time (40-40) on a Janelle Adams three-pointer four minutes into the second half before a Klein three-pointer with 13:13 to play gave the Vikings a 48-45 lead. CSU would lead for the next 11 minutes before a Thornton layup with 2:45 left gave the Bulldogs a 68-66 lead.

Susan Lester followed with two free throws and after a Viking miss, Alyssa Pittman hit 1-of-2 free throws with 23 seconds left to push the lead to five points and seal the win.

Two days after blistering Valparaiso for 54-percent shooting, the Vikings made just 25-of-68 (.368) from the field, while Butler shot .471 (24-51).

Butler also took advantage at the free throw line where they hit 20-of-29, compared to just 8-of-12 for the Vikings. All 12 attempts came in the second half.

CSU held a 39-37 advantage on the boards, while committing just 12 turnovers. However, Butler was better with only 10 miscues.

CSU concludes its current three-game roadtrip when the Vikings head to Youngstown State for a 2:05 p.m. contest next Saturday (Feb. 20) in CSU's lone game of the week.