Jan. 3, 2008

Box Score

CLEVELAND - In only his second career start, junior forward Darrin Williams tallied a career-best 21 points and added eight rebounds, but it wasn't enough as Loyola University Chicago (5-8, 1-2 Horizon) dropped a 63-55 contest to Cleveland State (9-5, 2-0 Horizon) tonight at the Wolstein Center. The loss snapped the Ramblers' 11-game winning streak against the Vikings, dating back to 2002.

Cleveland State misfired on its first eight shots of the game and turned the ball over five times, but Loyola was unable to build a lead bigger than 8-0 at the outset. Tracy Robinson's conventional three-point play with 9:13 left in the half gave the Ramblers a 17-9 lead, but the Vikings closed out the half with a 15-2 run to take a 24-19 lead into the locker room.

Loyola fell behind by as many as 10 points, at 50-40, in the second half, but mounted a late surge to close the deficit to 52-50 on Williams' tip-in with 3:33 remaining in the contest. From there however, Cleveland State scored the next seven points, five coming from the foul line, to seal the outcome.

Williams entered tonight's game with only 42 career points, but had a breakout game, hitting 8 of his 11 attempts from the field. J.R. Blount added 12 points and five assists, while Andy Polka chipped in 10 points and five boards for the Ramblers.

The Vikings received a team-high 14 points off the bench from Kevin Francis as Loyola held CSU's leading scorer, Cedric Jackson, to 10 points and 3 of 9 shooting.

Loyola is back in action when it plays at Youngstown State on Saturday at 1 p.m. Eastern.