Dec. 30, 2010

Box Score

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland State's (14-1, 3-0 Horizon) smothering defense forced 18 turnovers and held visiting Loyola University Chicago (9-5, 0-3 Horizon) to 38 percent shooting en route to a 73-55 victory at the Wolstein Center tonight. The Ramblers received 31 points from their bench and the reserves outscored those from Cleveland State, 31-15.

"Points off turnovers was a big stat tonight," Loyola head coach Jim Whitesell said of Cleveland State holding a 28-12 advantage in that statistical category. "We didn't handle their pressure very well and they converted our mistakes into easy baskets."

Loyola's defense kept the Vikings at bay, holding them scoreless for the first five minutes of the contest, but LU itself was only able to capitalize on that effort to take a 5-0 early lead. The Ramblers forced the Vikings into misfiring on their first six shot attempts from the field, but from that point on, CSU nailed 17-of-26 tries in the opening 20 minutes of action.

A basket by Terrance Hill brought Loyola within two points (17-15), but Aaron Pogue scored four straight points as part of a 9-0 Cleveland State run that stretched the lead to 26-15 and the Ramblers would get no closer than 10 points the rest of the game.

After falling behind 45-26 early in the second half, Loyola closed to 47-33 as Courtney Stanley and Ben Averkamp combined for seven points in a 7-2 spurt. But that would be as close as the Ramblers would get in the second half since the Vikings countered that attack with a 10-2 run of their own to take a 57-35 advantage.

Walt Gibler and Stanley tallied nine points each to lead Loyola. Freshman Jonathon Gac came off the bench to score four points, the first of his collegiate career, late in the contest.

Pogue recorded a double-double with game highs of 16 points and 12 rebounds to pace Cleveland State.

Loyola wraps up a four-game road trip when it visits Youngstown State on Saturday at 1 p.m. Eastern.