Cleveland State 76, Butler 69

The Cleveland State men's basketball team finally got the monkey off their back.

CSU used a fast start and held off a late rally to earn a rare road win against hated rival Butler, 76-69, Friday night in front of 7,994 fans at Hinkle Fieldhouse.

The win snaps a five-game losing streak to the Bulldogs and moves CSU (15-3, 5-1 Horizon League) into a first-place tie with UW-Milwaukee (12-6, 5-1 HL).

It was the first time that CSU has defeated Butler since the 2009 Horizon League Championship game. And the first-time that CSU has won a regular season game at Hinkle Fieldhouse since Feb. 10, 2005 under former head coach Mike Garland.

Jeremy Montgomery led the Vikings with 18 points. Tim Kamczyc (17 points), Trey Harmon (12) and Anton Grady (11) were the other Vikings in double-figures.

Butler (9-9, 3-3 HL) was led by Andrew Smith with 13. The Bulldogs also had 12 points a piece from Ronald Nored and Chase Stigall, and 11 points from Khyle Marshall.

The Vikings won despite committing 13 more fouls (29-16) and allowing the Bulldogs to shoot 42 free throws (25-for-42, 59.5 percent).

By the first media timeout, CSU had jumped out to a 18-4 lead and extended the lead to 16 on Grady's layup with 12:39 left in the half.

But the Bulldogs would close out the half on a 29-15 run to cut the lead to 35-33 at the half.

Butler would tie the game at 35-35 on Marshall's lay-up and then take its first lead since its opening basket (3-0) - on a pair of free throws from Smith - to give the Bulldogs a 41-40 lead with 16:15 left. That would be Butler's only lead of the second half.

A minute later, Montgomery's jumper gave the Vikings the lead for good and they would extend it to as much as 11 (59-48) on Harmon's lay-up with 8:18 left.

Butler would make it interesting, hitting three consecutive three-pointers in the span of 40 seconds to pull the Bulldogs within 72-69 with 22 seconds left.

But the Vikings would seal the victory making its free throws down the stretch.

The Vikings shot 48 percent and outscored the Bulldogs in points in the paint (28-12), points off turnovers (22-9), fast break points (8-0) and bench points (19-12).

CSU will continue its Indiana road trip with a visit to Valparaiso on Sunday.

Box score




Jeremy Montgomery photo courtesy of Cleveland State athletics; Videos courtesy of Cleveland Leader