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Red Hot Vikings Win Sixth Straight
By Tom Mieskoski
The 4, 235 fans in attendance at the Wolstein Center on Saturday got a taste of Horizon League basketball at its best.
As Saturday's match-up between second-place UW-Green Bay against third-place Cleveland State was an all-out battle to the very end, with the Vikings earning a hard-fought 83-75 victory.
CSU (19-8, 10-5 Horizon League) have won six straight and remain tied for third-place with Wright State, who defeated Detroit Saturday. The Vikings are a game back of Green Bay (19-8, 11-4) for second-place in the standings, which comes with an automatic bye into the semi-finals of next month's Horizon League Tournament.
"I thought our kids were resilient. They took the hit and fought back," said CSU coach Gary Waters. "Sometimes you got to take those hits and wither those storms. Because we are getting ready to get into championship play, and it will come down to the last shot and the last minute. And you have to execute during those periods of times."
The Vikings got off to a fast start scoring the first 16 points of the game and shot 50 percent from the field in the first half, to take a 34-24 advantage at halftime.
In the second half, CSU pushed their lead to as much as 17. Then CSU got into some foul trouble, and Green Bay took advantage, using a 27-11 run to cut the lead down to, 71-70, on Ryan Tillema's lay-up with 2:52 left.
"I told them there are three things we need to do right now: make free throws; can't turn the ball over and defend hard down the stretch," said Waters. "I went to Jeremy (Montgomery) and told him that he was the key to the game at that point. If he turns the ball over, I thought the game might have changed at that moment. We had no other options because both guys (Cedric Jackson and George Tandy) had four fouls."
Down the stretch, it was CSU that made all the big plays as Tandy scored four straight points after Green Bay cut it to one, on a jumper and two free throws, to give CSU a 75-70 lead with 1:41 left.
"I don't think I need to score to help the team," said Tandy. "I fell if I play good defense and lock up my man, it's as good as getting to the basket and making free throws."
After Rahmon Fletcher's lay-up cut the lead to, 75-73, with 59 seconds left, Chris Moore responded with a lay-up of his own, giving CSU a two-possession lead again with 39 seconds left.
"Coach said, we are going to be in a lot of close games this season," said Norris Cole. "Once the adrenaline comes down, it's just basic basketball. So once it gets to crunch time, we relax, go over what we practice and try to execute. That's what keeps us calm and relax."
The Phoenix self-destructed down the stretch as Terry Evans missed a free throw, Tillema missed a pair of free throws and Randy Berry missed a lay-up.
The Vikings, who came into the game shooting 66.7 percent from the free throw line in the last five minutes, sealed the game by making six straight free throws in the final 26 seconds, two each by D'Aundray Brown, J'Nathan Bullock and Cole.
Bullock credited Waters for making his players come in early in the morning to shoot free throws during the winter break as to why CSU went 20-for-23 (87 percent) from the charity stripe in the second half. "It helped us a lot because we put a lot of emphasize on free throws, because free throws win clutch games in key moments like tonight," he said.
Cole led CSU with 21 points on 7-for-10 from the field, including a perfect 3-for-3 from 3-point distance and 4-for-4 from the charity stripe. Bullock contributed 18 points and five rebounds for the Vikings, with Chris Moore adding 13 points. Jackson flirted with a triple-double again as he ended up with 11 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists and three steals.
The Phoenix had five players in double-figures led by Tillema (18 points), Mike Schachtner (15), Troy Cotton (13), Berry (12) and Fletcher (10 points and seven assists).
CSU will close out their final regular season home game on Wednesday as Youngstown State, who has won four in a roll, comes to town. The first 1,000 fans receive a Gary Waters bobble head.
"It's a big game on Wednesday. (Youngstown State) is coming in pretty confident and they beat us the last time. So we really have to focus on this team. Regardless of the six game we won before this it's not worth anything," said Waters.
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