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Cleveland State beats No. 7 Vanderbilt

Nov 14, 2011 - 3:01 AM Nashville, TN (Sports Network) - D'Aundray Brown poured in 18 points on 6- of-10 shooting and pulled down eight rebounds to lead the Cleveland State Vikings to a 71-58 upset of seventh-ranked Vanderbilt on Sunday as part of the TicketCity Legends Classic.

Trevon Harmon scored 11 points to go with four rebounds and four assists, and Jeremy Montgomery added 10 points for the Vikings (1-0).

John Jenkins had 17 points and Lance Goulbourne added 11 points and eight rebounds for the Commodores (1-1), who were coming off Friday's 78-64 win over Oregon in their season-opener.

Cleveland State scored the first five points of the game and jumped out to an 11-4 lead four minutes into the game.

"It's more the kids, the kids make a commitment and you follow through with it. But what we do is we pressure the ball, but it's very important, I watch a lot of teams and they apply pressure but it's what happens after the pressure," Cleveland State head coach Gary Waters said of his defensive philosophy. "It's the support system is the key that makes our defense strong. We do a great job of stepping up and helping the next guy and that's what our defense is built on."

Vanderbilt followed with the next six points, but the Vikings responded to the Commodores' runs throughout the early part of the first half and were up 22-14 midway through the period.

Cleveland State held a comfortable lead for the rest of the first half. A Montgomery three-pointer with 1:33 to play gave the Vikings their largest lead of the period -- 16 points -- and they rolled into the break with a 37-24 advantage.

Cleveland State shot 52 percent in the first half and held Vanderbilt to 29 percent shooting.

The Commodores started to come back in the second half, using a 10-0 run to pull within 41-38. They were still within three moments later, but the Vikings used a quick 7-0 spurt to build the lead back to 10. Charles Lee's jumper with 9:54 to play made it a 50-40 game.

Cleveland State kept the pressure up for the remainder of the game, and a three-pointer by Montgomery with 2:54 to go put the Vikings up 63-51.

Vanderbilt didn't get closer than six during the final 10 minutes as the Vikings secured the upset win.

"[Cleveland State was] making it hard to get the ball and set up an offense. We struggled to get open and it messed up our whole offense," Vanderbilt forward Steve Tchiengang said. "We failed to prepare enough."

Cleveland State finished shooting 50 percent from the field, while Vandy made only 35 percent for the game.

Game Notes

Vanderbilt won its only previous meeting with Cleveland State, taking a 93-64 decision back in 1994...The loss for Vanderbilt marks the first non-conference home defeat since a 74-55 loss to UIC on December 3, 2008. The Commodores had held a 20-game home non-conference streak...Jenkins became the 42nd Vanderbilt player to reach the 1,000 point plateau.