Kendall Nead made a lethal mistake early in Cleveland State’s 64-51 victory over Milwaukee on Saturday afternoon in the Wolstein Center: She activated Sara Guerreiro’s Emergency Mode.
On Milwaukee’s first possession of the game, Angie Cera misfired on a three-point attempt from the corner. Guerreiro appeared to grab the rebound, but lost it thanks to an effort play by Nead. The sequence concluded a few passes later, with Nead hitting a long jumper to give her team a 2-0 lead.
“In the first possession of the game, I got a defensive rebound, and [Nead] came flying in and took the ball out of my hands,” Guerreiro recalled. “So I was like all right, this is how it’s going to be, it’s going to be a physical game.”
Physicality? Not a problem for the senior from Portugal, who chose the nuclear option.
“Okay, Emergency Mode, I’m going to get as many rebounds as I can,” she added. “So I just kept playing hard and putting the effort in.”
Guerreiro wound up with a game-high 12 rebounds in the victory, to go along with 12 points and a pair of steals. All in all, it was another successful deployment of Emergency Mode and another big outing for one of CSU’s underrated core players.
“Sara’s playing the best basketball of her life, and she may be the most confident that she’s ever been in her life,” Vikings head coach Chris Kielsmeier said. “It’s amazing to see players just hang in there and keep growing and keep learning and keep wanting it. She’s worked hard for this, and she’s getting what she deserves.”
Of course, she had plenty of help during a defensive effort that, at times, may have been the best Cleveland State has offered all season.
The Vikings served early notice that they would rule the day on that end of the floor. Milwaukee took a brief 5-4 lead just under three minutes into the game, though both Panthers buckets were heavily-contested efforts late in the shot clock, including the fateful Nead basket and a three-pointer by Kamy Peppler.
Things quickly went from difficult to impossible for the visiting team however, as the Vikings responded with a 12-0 run to establish a lead that wouldn’t face any serious threat for the rest of the afternoon. That first quarter alone included five steals, a pair of blocks – including a mammoth stuff of the Panthers’ Jorey Buwalda by Brooklynn Fort-Davis – and just four field goals allowed.
Of course, the first quarter may have been bettered by the third quarter, when Milwaukee was held scoreless until the media timeout midway through the frame, allowing Cleveland State to build a substantial lead that peaked at 45-21.
“We were as sharp at some areas tonight as we have been all year,” Kielsmeier said. “To force 16 turnovers, to have 13 steals, to create that on the defensive end really shows how our defense fired.”
“We rebounded well, we got to the free throw line, we found a way to turn them over, which is exactly the recipe that leads to success for us.”
Colbi Maples led the Vikings with 15 points and six assists, an effort that’s become routine for the starting point guard, while Faith Burch excelled off the bench with ten points and four rebounds in just 11:21 on the floor. Jordana Reisma added 12 points – including CSU’s first six of the game – though Kielsmeier was quick to point her defensive exploits, which included three steals. Thanks largely to her controlling the middle of the floor up and down the court, star Milwaukee freshman Buwalda was severely limited by foul trouble before eventually being ejected with five minutes left in the game.
“I think she’s one of the most underrated defenders in the league,” Kielsmeier said. “JD’s the glue in that thing. If you can’t defend the paint in this system, you can’t defend the way we want to defend.”
If there were blemishes to the Vikings’ 23rd win this season, they largely occurred late in the game. CSU was just 6-for-27 from the floor during the second half, thanks in part to their frustrations with a zone defense Milwaukee threw their way.
“We’ve gotta close games better,” Kielsmeier said. “They went to that zone, and we got kind of stagnant offensively and didn’t attack that with the aggressiveness that we needed to. Then we just kind of fell asleep on some [Milwaukee] three-balls and really didn’t defend with a sense of urgency.”
“Sometimes you just get caught up in the moment, we’re up, and this isn’t the possession, and I try to get them to understand that every possession is the possession.”
Regardless, after only light discomfort (the Panthers were never closer than the 13-point final margin during the second half), the victory clinched a home quarterfinal game in the Horizon League Tournament next month – the Vikings are five losses better than fifth-place Detroit Mercy with four games remaining – and kept Cleveland State on track for the first regular season championship in program history.
Guerreiro is confident that she understands what the latter goal requires, particularly as her squad races a Green Bay team that similarly has just two HL defeats.
“All these games now are finals,” she said. “It’s right in front of us, we’ve gotta go get it.”
