Fifteen minutes before Cleveland State tipped off its home opener against Bowling Green on Tuesday night, now-graduated Vikings wing Carmen Villalobos punctuated a brief pregame ceremony by pulling a cord that unrolled a banner commemorating the 2023-24 Horizon League regular season title that CSU clinched in March.
Roughly 45 minutes later, CSU trailed the Falcons 27-10 early in the second quarter and looked like anything but a championship team. Starting BG guards Amy Velasco and Paige Kohler had combined for five three-pointers in six attempts at that juncture against an uninspired perimeter defense, the Falcons were winning the rebounding battle 12-7 and, on the opposite end of the court, the Vikings had already committed eight turnovers.
“We were lunging and leaning, and leaving [Velasco] and [Kohler] open,” Cleveland State head coach Chris Kielsmeier said, before observing that those same two players went 8-for-10 from three-point range in his team’s loss at Bowling Green last November.
“It’s not like we didn’t know what kind of good players they were. We weren’t ready to play, we weren’t ready to execute.”
It was, in possibly the thickest irony of the young season, a situation where Cleveland State probably could have used Villalobos, who capped her career as the HL’s Defensive Player of the Year, and typically elevated the play of her teammates whenever she was in the game.
Kielsmeier laughed at the suggestion, in a manner only possible with the knowledge that things turned out okay, thanks to a second-half surge and a 75-68 victory that appeared about as likely as the NCAA granting Villalobos another year of eligibility at one point.
“We just have to defend better,” he eventually said, before considering how the Spaniard’s departure affects the current team. “Certain lineups, we may not have quite the length on the front line that we’ve had in the past, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be every bit as good defensively as any group before.”
“They have to find their own way. They have to find what works for them.”
So what changed on Tuesday and allowed the Vikings to improve to 2-1?
“I think we just found what was working,” forward Jordana Reisma said. “We hadn’t really attacked the paint, and so we decided that we should go for it, and it started to work, and so we kept going to it. The guards found that I was open at times and they gave me the ball, so I was able to do my work.”
Work, it did. Reisma finished with 17 points – just one tally shy of her career high – on 7-for-9 shooting, while holding Falcons forward Erika Porter (who also starred in last season’s meeting) to just six points and a healthy chunk of foul trouble.
“What Jordana did tonight is not a surprise to anybody,” Kielsmeier said, while praising his starting post player’s ability to stay on an even keel regardless of the situation around her.
“We all know how good Jordana is, I’m very proud of her,” guard Sara Guerreiro added. “We had to pound the ball inside and trust Coach K, trust [Reisma], do what we’re supposed to, and there’s no way they can guard it.”
Guerreiro was also a significant part of that pounding effort, finishing with team bests of 19 points (nine of which came on free throws after being fouled inside), nine rebounds and five assists. Crucially, she scored six of the Vikings’ ten points in the first quarter, helping CSU do just enough to keep the game within reach.
“Even practice-wise, she’s somebody that really is the glue to this team,” guard Destiny Leo said. “Obviously, things happen in practice that translate to games. You guys can see it on game day, but we see it every day, and that’s just the type of player that she is.”
Two of Guerreiro’s assists fed Reisma buckets, while two others ended up in the hands of Leo during the contest’s defining moments.
After the Vikings stabilized things in the second quarter and managed to pull within ten points at the half, they were finally ready to make their move by the midpoint of the third frame. Leo contributed heftily to that strike, knocking down a trio of three-pointers during a three-minute stretch that witnessed a 15-4 CSU run, and the execution of the game’s only lead change.
“I think that the reason it happened was because I let the moment come to me,” Leo, who finished with 12 points, said. “I’ve learned that with this team, none of us has to be impatient with anything. Every single one of us is going to have their moment at the right time, whenever it comes.”
“We have so many playmakers, there’s no reason why anyone should have to force anything.”
Velasco ended up with a game-high 28 points for Bowling Green. Meanwhile Kohler, a North Olmsted, OH native whose friends and family represented a disproportionate share of the announced attendance of 411, added 15 points and eight rebounds.
The evening, however, eventually belonged to a Cleveland State team burdened with high expectations but, for perhaps the first time this season, resembling a squad capable of planning another banner ceremony next season.
“We know that we can figure things out if we’re in a rut, and that builds character for our team, being able to bounce back,” Leo said.
“Early in the season, late in the season, no matter what, when, where, you just gotta find a way to win. This group found a way,” Kielsmeier added.
“What we did in that second half should give them a lot of confidence as a team.”
