Even when they were down by seven points early in the second half, sophomore point guard Charlie Lee said he and his Cleveland State teammates never thought they were in trouble Wednesday against Division II Notre Dame College.
"It never crossed our mind we would lose," Lee said after the Vikings pulled away to a 77-66 victory over the Falcons at the Wolstein Center.
The win was the 300th of CSU coach Gary Waters' career.
While there is much to be said about confidence and the bravado of youth, the fact is, it took a concerted effort by the Vikings to steer clear of a titanic upset.
"Our guys really battled," NDC coach Kevin Bille said.
Coming off a 34-point loss Saturday at St. Bonaventure, it's possible the Vikings thought they could cruise their way through Wednesday's game in advance of another stern test Sunday at Akron.
That notion probably was reinforced when the Vikings cruised to a 20-8 lead after six minutes.
But what happened over the final 14 minutes of the first half and long stretches of the second half was a reality check of the first order.
With pint-sized freshman point guard and former Cleveland Heights High School standout Tyree Gaiter leading the charge, the Falcons narrowed the gap to 35-34 at halftime.
NDC stayed hot to open the second half, pulling away to a 47-40 lead. Continued...
It wasn't until CSU sophomore guard Sebastian Douglas drained a jump shot at the 9:53 mark that CSU moved ahead to stay at 52-51.
Down the stretch, the Vikings asserted themselves and made the plays they had to make.
CSU improved to 7-4 overall with the too-close-for-comfort win. The Vikings got double-figure scoring performances from five players.
Sophomore center Marlin Mason led the way with a career-high 19 point.
Fellow sophomore Charlie Lee, CSU's 5-foot-9 point guard, finished with 11 points and found himself engaged in quite the spirited showdown with the 5-7 Gaiter.
Gaiter finished with 16 points.
"I let him (Gaiter) get into the paint too much in the first half and he got his team going," Lee said.
Senior forward netted 18 points and pulled down a game-high nine rebounds for the Falcons, who slipped to 2-7.
Source: http://www.news-herald.com/articles/2012/12/20/sports/nh6355138.txt
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