NCAA Basketball - Cleveland State Beat Butler and Obtains Horizon League Tourney Title

The third place of the Horizon League at the regular season, Cleveland State, defeated the Butler Bulldogs in great way 57-54 in the Conference Championship. The Vikings haven’t been in the NCAA tournament since 1986 and was unable to win the Conference tournament for years, but the history changed last night when Cleveland State obtained the victory for good. The Vikings lost against Butler in the Horizon championship last year while this year the team also felt twice against the Bulldogs during the regular season by two points; however, this time the Vikings finally got the triumph in the most important confrontation.

During the first half, the Butler Bulldogs were controlling the game and were able to get a lead of 8 points several times, however the Vikings got close at the end of the half losing by only 4 points with an score of 32-28 at halftime. Starting the second half, Cleveland kept trailing and losing 31-39 with 18:21 left in the game. Although the Vikings began a trail of three-pointers with J'Nathan Bullock and Jeremy Montgomery, which shortened Butler advantage to only two points with 17:46 to play.

Moreover, with only 11:42 to play CSU took the lead by two points but Butler regained a lead of one point with 10:11 to play with three free throws from Howard, which was the last lead of the Bulldogs in the game. After that, Jackson answered with a three-pointer and followed with a layup to give the Vikings a 52-48 lead with 9:11 left. Subsequently, CSU maintained the lead until the end and even though Butler had several occasions to tie the game, Mack and Gordon Hayward missed the 3-pointer shots as time expired and this way the Vikings began the celebration of their first NCAA tournament berth after 23 years.

The best scorers for CSU were Cedric Jackson, who was named MVP of the tournament adding 19 points, 8 assists and seven rebounds, Jeremy Montgomery who scored 11 points off the bench and J’Nathan Bullock added 10 points and five rebounds. For Butler the best scorers were Shelvin Mack with 18 points and Howard with 14 points.

This triumph gave CSU a berth for the NCAA Tournament and the first ring for Coach Gary Waters in his three seasons with Cleveland State. For his part, Cedric Jackson was named MVP of the tourney and expressed his happiness of having the title of the conference. "It feels so good. I've waited four years, five years, it's so amazing, just to get this championship," said Jackson. "It means the world to me. This team has stuck together day in and day out."

On the other hand, Butler Coach Brad Stevens praised his team effort and obviously gave credit to CSU, who played amazingly with the help of his star player Cedric Jackson. With this result, CSU is waiting to see who they will play in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, while Butler expects to receive an at-large NCAA bid on Sunday.