Ray Lewis on Peyton Hillis: “A Blind Cat Will Find a Meal”
December 23, 201012 Days of a Cleveland Fan Christmas
December 23, 2010On a cold night in Cleveland, almost 5,000 fans came to the Wolstein Center to see Cleveland’s best Basketball team take on a big conference foe. The patrons were treated to another virtoso performance from conductor Gary Waters and his players.
Nobody was better than Senior Guard Norris Cole, who continued his superb play. Down two at the half Cole took over the game. He scored 25 points in leading a CSU Comeback to knock off South Florida 69-62. Said Bulls coach Stan Heath about Cole: “That kid can play at any level, any gym, anywhere.”
They would need every one of his 27, as well as backcourt mate Jeremy Montgomery’s 21, because the Vikings were absolutely abused on the glass. How often do you see a team get essentially doubled in rebounds (47-24) and still manage to win?
Essentially never.
Trailing by five early in the second half, the CSU guard duo went to work. Cole scored eight straight capped by a basket and one to put the Vikings ahead with 12 minutes left at 44-43. It was a lead they would never relinquish. Montgomery’s back to back threes and Cole’s two buckets stretched the CSU lead to 10 at 61-51 with four and a half minutes left.
It was as close as six with a minute left, but Cole and Montgomery again came up big, hitting all four free throws to close out the win, Cleveland State’s 13th.
Amazing to consider this win over a Big East team who killed them on the glass. “You look at these statistics you’d say we don’t win this game,” Waters said. “But I thought we fought, we got loose balls and we got steals.” 14 of them to be exact. South Florida turned the ball over a whopping 24 times. Cleveland State had just four.
That stat right there makes up for the rebounding margin.
While the defense forced the TO’s, the night belonged to Cole and Montgomery. With Tre Harmon struggling from the field (2-12) and the low post players getting muscled, the veteran tandem took the game over. They also got a key 19 minutes of the bench from little used Freshman Ludovic Ndaye, who scored seven points and grabbed seven rebounds.
Now 13-1, CSU will welcome league foe Loyola-Chicago to the Wolstein Center a week from tonight. They are already 2-0 in the Horizon League and look like they will contend for the title. No doubt Butler will have something to say about it, but the Vikings will be there all year.
Now lets get behind this team, Cleveland!
3 Comments
I live across the street and attend CSU. The excitement behind this team is real! Anytime you have a guy like Cole running the show they can win a game. Their big men did abuse us but Stan Heath has a sloppy team in S. Florida. Conference play should be a blast this year. Cant beat the “Hoopy Hour” for a cheap night out
I hope they build a good enough profile that they will be considered for an at large bid. So hard for these “one and done” conference teams if they lose in their tourney. Let’s hope they take care of business, stay healthy and win the bid outright. With guards like that, they could take a game in the big dance if they get up to a 12 or 13 seed.
no love for the 9-3 golden flashes…i see how it is