Dec. 22, 2007

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Contact: Brian McCann

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland State used deadly shooting and a balanced scoring attack to defeat Central Michigan, 86-70, on Saturday afternoon in the Wolstein Center. The Vikings, who have won four of their last five games, improved to 8-4 this season, while CMU slipped to 4-7.

CSU was extremely efficient on the offensive end all afternoon, shooting a blistering .532 (25-47) from the field, including an 8-for-15 (.533) effort from three-point. It is the third straight game at the Wolstein Center that the Vikings shot better than .500.

The Vikings were just as dominant on the defensive end of the court, limiting CMU to a 27-of-70 (.386) effort from the floor and just 3-of-17 (.176) from three-point.

J'Nathan Bullock finished with a game-high tying 19 points, five rebounds and three assists for the Vikings, despite playing just three minutes in the first half due to foul trouble. Joe Davis, who was making his first start of the season, hit 6-of-8 from the floor and tallied 14 points, while Cedric Jackson added 12 points, six assists, five rebounds and three steals.

Nate Minnoy led CMU with 19 points and eight rebounds off the bench, while Jeremy Allen had 13 points.

"This was Christmas come early for us," head coach Gary Waters said. "We needed something good after the Ohio State game on Tuesday and I was pleased with the way we responded. It was a physical game and we didn't back down at all. I'm proud of the way we took it to them and were able to get the whole team involved."

Justin Blevins started the scoring as he converted a layup less than a minute into the contest to give CMU a 2-0 lead. However, Joe Davis hit a three-pointer for the Vikings two possessions later to give CSU a 3-2 lead, an advantage that the Vikings would not relinquish for the rest of the afternoon.

CSU appeared on the verge of taking complete control of the contest by claiming its largest lead of the first half (20-11) on a three-pointer by J'Nathan Bullock with just under nine minutes to play. CSU hit 6-of-10 (.600) three-pointers in the first 20 minutes of play and 12-of-23 (.522) overall from the floor.

Following Bullock's three-pointer at the 8:59 mark, the Chippewas went on a 13-7 run to slice their deficit to three points (27-24) with 2:26 to play.

However, the Vikings responded a Davis jumper and consecutive three-pointers from Cedric Jackson to regain a nine-point advantage (35-26) before Giordan Watosn hit a pair of free throws with one second left to cut Central Michigan's deficit to 35-28 at halftime.

CMU held a 16-0 advantage in points in the paint and a 10-3 lead in second chance points in the first half.

The Vikings opened the second half on a 7-0 run to push the lead to 42-28 as Jackson hit a pair of free throws, Kevin Francis converted an old-fashioned three-point play and Davis hit a jumper to force an early Chippewa timeout.

Central Michigan attempted to mount several comebacks in the second half, slicing CSU's lead to 11 on three occasions. However, the Vikings had an answer each time.

A Jeremy Allen layup cut the Viking lead to 53-42 with 13:42 to play, but Davis hit a three-pointer on the next possession and a Norris Cole steal led to a breakaway dunk for Bullock to push the lead back to 16 points (58-42).

CMU threatened one more time in the second half, going on a 7-2 run to bring the deficit back to 11 points. Once again, however, Cleveland State had an answer scoring 12 of the next 15 points, to take its largest lead of the contest (72-52) with six minutes to play.

The Chippewas did outrebound CSU, 38-34, including 21 on the offensive end.

The Vikings will be out of action until next Saturday (Dec. 29) when they travel to Kent State for a 7:00 p.m. contest.