Nov. 18, 2007

Final Stats

Contact: Brian McCann

DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. - J'Nathan Bullock, Joe Davis and Cedric Jackson combined to score 60 points and CSU played strong defense down the stretch as the Vikings defeated Florida Atlantic, 76-66, in a final round game in the Glenn Wilkes Classic.

The win improved CSU to 3-2 on the year, including a 3-1 record in the Glenn Wilkes Classic which will be good for no worse than second place. The Vikings will share the with Rhode Island if UAB defeats the Rams later today. FAU falls to 1-4.

"I knew going into this game that it was going to be a battle," head coach Gary Waters said. "It was our third game in three days and second in less than 15 hours so I knew that fatigue was going to be an issue.

"We came out and played strong defensively in the first half but our schedule started to show in the second half because they (FAU) was able to penetrate and get to the basket. Even though we were able to match them basket for basket, they were shooting layups and we were making jumpers.

"We needed our bench to come through today and they did. I couldn't have asked for more than 25 points from it. They really did the job."

Bullock was dominant, leading CSU with 25 points, his nine career 20-point game. He made seven of his 13 field goal attempts, including a three-for-five effort from three-point, and made eight of his nine free throws.

Jackson was strong again, scoring 17 points with six assists while Davis came off the bench to score a season-high 18 points on six-for-12 shooting with three three-pointers.

The Vikings used a 10-0 run midway through the first half to take the lead for good.

Although CSU had the lead for the entire second half, the margin was never comfortably ahead enough.

Florida Atlantic closed to within 67-63 on a Paul Graham jumper with 3:18 left. CSU countered with one of two free throws by Breyohn Watson, a Jackson field goal and a three-pointer from Bullock to push the lead back to nine (73-64) with 27 seconds left.

The Vikings had a 33-28 lead on the boards with George Tandy pulling down a career high 10 and Bullock adding eight. CSU also did a nice job of taking care of the ball, turning the ball over a season-low nine times.

The first half belonged to the Vikings as CSU ran off 10 straight points in a 5:07 span to turn a 13-13 tie into a double-digit lead with 8:29 left.

Jackson scored the first five points in the run, scoring a three-point play on one possession and hitting a foul line jumper on the next. The bench finished the run as Joe Davis drove to the hoop for a three-point play and George Tandy tipped in a missed Davis shot.

Florida Atlantic drew no closer than eight points the rest of the first half with the Vikings extending the lead to 13 when Bullock connected on a three-pointer with 1:10 left to send CSU to the locker room with a 39-26 halftime lead.

The Owls scored the seven points of the second half to close to within 39-33 with 16:50 left, but the Vikings used a pair of Davis three-pointers to rebuild the lead to 51-38 with 12:34 left.

The Vikings will now have a couple of days to rest before resuming the schedule with their home opener against John Carroll on Saturday, Nov. 24 beginning at 3:00 p.m. in the Wolstein Center. It will begin a stretch that will see CSU play eight of its next 10 games at home leading into the new year.