The Butler Bulldogs may not be having a typical Butler-type season – especially considering they nearly won the National Championship last year before losing to Duke, but that doesn’t mean they are going to make things easy for the Cleveland State Vikings, the current front-runner in the Horizon League.
Matt Howard scored 14 points, Andrew Smith 13 and Khyle Marshall had 12 as the Bulldogs beat the Vikings at the Wolstein Center 73-61. The Vikings seemed flat from the start, or Butler played well enough to make the Vikings look that way.
Butler led by 4 at halftime – 33-29 and kept the lead close to double-digits most of the 2nd half. Cleveland State made a run in the final minutes to get within 66-59, but the Bulldogs scored the final 7 points of the game to seal it.
Guard Jeremy Montgomery scored 18 points for the Vikings and Norris Cole added 15. Cleveland State had won 6 straight games. Cleveland State shot 40% from the field and had just 6 assists all day.
The Vikings will have tomorrow off before travelling to Detroit on Monday.