Dec. 22, 2005

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Contact: Brian McCann

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Carlos English scored a career-high 19 points and J'Nathan Bullock added 17 points as Cleveland State ran past John Carroll, 84-53 on Thursday night in the Wolstein Center.

The game marked the first time in a little over 21 years that CSU and John Carroll met in basketball with the Vikings claiming their sixth straight victory over the Blue Streaks. CSU has not lost to John Carroll since February 7, 1967.

On a rare night when the Viking offense and defense both clicked, CSU set season highs for shooting from the field (29-59, .492), from the line (22-29, .759) and from three-point (4-7, .571) while limiting John Carroll to a CSU opponent shooting lows of .267 from the field (20-75), .533 from the line (8-15) and .179 from the three-point (5-28).

Pete Moran paced John Carroll with 14 points with Demetrius Travis adding 10 points.

"This was a pretty good example of what we can do when we play together," head coach Mike Garland said. "We struggled a little bit coming out of the gate, but once we finally got going, we really took it to them.

"I thought that when it came down to it, we out-matched them athletically. But when it came to hustle and guts, particularly in the first half, they had more than us. As the game went on, some of our key players decide that it was time to step their games up and come play."

The Vikings won the game the old-fashioned way, using their advantage in both quickness and athleticism to overwhelm the Blue Streaks. The Vikings scored 44 points in the paint.

English showed the offensive side to his game, connecting on four-of-six three-point attempts to easily surpass his old career scoring best of 12 points set last week at Michigan State. He also handed out four assists and mad three steals to increase his league-leading steal total to 20.

Bullock showed why he is one of the top freshman in the Horizon League this year, bullying his way inside to go six-of-13 from the field and five-of-seven from the line for 17 points. He added seven rebounds and a pair of blocks.

The Vikings also received a strong performance from starting forward Luke Murphy, who tallied 11 points with five rebounds. He blocked a career-high six shots, including five in the first half, the fourth-highest single game total in CSU history and only one shy of the school mark.

Frashon McGee turned in another strong effort off the bench, scoring eight points with eight rebounds.

The game started out slowly for the Vikings as John Carroll built an early 7-3 advantage. The lead was short-lived as a pair of free throws by Moss and a basket inside by Justin Henderson knotted the score at 7-7 with 15:46 left.

The Blue Streaks took their final lead of the first half, 11-10 with 13;34 left on a Kyle Roggenburk basket inside. The Vikings answered with 12 straight points over the next 5:17 to take control of the contest.

Bullock did most of the damage during the run, scoring three baskets inside during the stretch. When Frashon McGee put back a missed Carlos English jumper, CSU led 22-11 with 8:17 remaining.

The Blue Streaks would hang close, closing within 30-22 with 4:40 left before the Vikings ran off eight straight points to push the lead to 38-22 with 1:18 left. Murphy started the run with back-to-back buckets inside. Morris followed by making one of two free throws and Bullock closed the run with a three-point play inside.

John Carroll closed the half strong, using a Justin Ragor three-pointer and a pair of free throws by Demetrius Travis to pull to within 38-27 at the break.

But CSU started the second half quickly, scoring the first five points to extend the lead to 16. After that, the Vikings never led by less than 13. If there were any questions, a 22-5 CSU run midway through the second half put them to rest as the Vikings extended their lead to as many as 31.

CSU will now take a short break for the Christmas holiday before returning to action next Thursday night (Dec. 29) when the Vikings begin Horizon League play against Loyola beginning at 7:00 p.m. in the Wolstein Center.