Cleveland State beats two D1 teams in fun week

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Photo: Greg Kula

Cleveland State took a leap this past week. Between multiple guys having career games and the team looking more in tune with each other, the Vikings won two good games leading into this week’s matchup against Minnesota. 

Away Game at Valparaiso

Facing a familiar foe (even though they left the Horizon League in 2017), CSU fans were extremely excited to get a win against the Beacons. Also a familiar foe was Valpo’s assistant coach Pat Baldwin (former head coach of Milwaukee and father of Patrick Baldwin Jr.). 

Starters for the Vikings were a bit different this game as Cole Franklin and Ebrima Dibba slid into the starting roles for Chase Robinson and Isaac Abidde. Along with these two, the starting Vikes were Dylan Arnett, Tevin Smith, and Tahj Staveskie. 

Neither team was able to do much before the first media timeout as Valpo grabbed a small 8-6 lead. This goes along with basically every game so far for the Vikings as games seem to start slow.

The next few minutes would be very quiet for the Vikes as well as they would make only two baskets before the next media timeout and Valpo slightly grew their lead by one point to 13-10. 

A slew of missed shots and turnovers by both teams and then a jumper by both the Vikes and Beacons and another CSU basket was all the offense either team could muster in the next four minutes as the Vikings closed the gap to 15-14. 

After taking a small one point lead on a Staveskie three, the Vikings would allow the Beacons to take a six point lead before closing the half well. The score heading into the locker room was 31-28 Valpo.

In short, the first half was relatively evenly matched. Then CSU turned into a different offensive team.

After scoring only those 28 points in the first half, the Vikings would score 47 points in the second. 

A Smith layup and Staveskie three around the 16-minute mark saw the Vikings take the lead and never relent the rest of the game. At one point they grew the lead all the way to 13 and just kept pouring it on while pressuring Valpo on defense. 

Valpo made it a bit scary with 1:20 left in the game on a three that narrowed the score to 71-65 but a Franklin layup essentially finished off the Beacons.

The Vikings would close it out to win 75-67 for their first win against a D-1 team this season.

Key Takeaways:

  1. The Vikings continue to dominate in the paint with 44 points coming there to Valpo’s 34. With this year’s added height and the carousel of guards, people are getting open in slashes to the rim a lot more.
  2. Going right along with points in the paint, the Vikes also had six blocks again. As you will see below, this is one of the main parts to the Vikings identity this year.
  3. Keeping on track with the play around the basket, Arnett continued his dominant start to the season with 19 points and 14 rebounds. There is only so much one can say about what he has meant to the team thus far. In short, he’s been incredible.
  4. Staveskie has arrived. With 19 points and six assists, he showed why his transfer was huge for the Vikings. As he was injured last year and on a new team, it looks like his slow start was just some rust. He’s finally hitting his outside shots and making smooth passes.
  5. 10 for 13 for free throws. 30 for 58 from the floor. Just some good consistent shooting again that deserves some praise.

Home Game vs. Eastern Michigan

Coming back home after their first win away from Cleveland this year, the Vikings went with the same five starters from the Valpo win. Arnett, Dibba, Smith, Franklin, and Staveskie all were back on the court to start for CSU. On the other side, Cleveland native and Lutheran East alum Jalin Billingsley, a senior forward, started for Eastern Michigan.

Continuing his great start to the season, Arnett won the tip and then put up a nice shot to start the scoring for the day. After the Eagles tied the game, Smith threw down a dunk off a Staveskie miss. The Eagles again tied the score, but Smith gave the Vikings the lead right back with a three to go up 7-4.

The Vikings defense had some trouble initially containing the Eagles as they gave up a few dunks off switching too slowly and not rotating. All in all, it was a fairly mediocre offensive first 4 minutes as the Vikes held a slim 7-6 lead at the first media timeout.

Then the Vikings decided to get serious on defense. Out of the media timeout, Abidde and Chase Robinson came in for Dibba and Franklin and the Vikes forced a five second violation on the inbounds play. Smith pointed out the overall defensive effort after the game, “[w]e just locked in on the defensive details[…] switching, doing what we did at practice.”

Back-and-forth miscues and extremely tight defense on both sides continued until the Eagles were able to go on a 7-1 run. Smith again came to the rescue with another three and the Vikings closed the score to 13-14 at the second media timeout. 

In one possession, Debrick showed what the team missed with his knee injury last season. He had two insane blocks that led to a shot clock violation by the Eagles. With Reece Robinson in a walking boot, Debrick’s intensity was welcomed by the team and the crowd showed him plenty of excitement after the second block. Both Smith and head coach Daniyal Robinson mentioned that the motto of the week was “Not Today” and this sequence was a perfect encapsulation of this idea.

Although the Vikings were down 22-24 at the third media timeout, Arnett’s steal and layup tied it at 24. In quick succession, Dibba found Staveskie in the corner for a three, then Arnett swatted away another Eagle shot before Franklin also had a great find to Dibba down low for a layup. All of this added up to a 29-28 lead for the Vikings at the last media timeout in the first half. The Vikes would close out the half well and take a 37-33 lead into the locker room at half.

The start of the second half looked oddly similar to the Valpo game. The Vikings came out and again took control immediately. Between Staveskie and Smith, the Eagles didn’t know who to guard, and both made them pay.

Though the Vikings built a nine-point lead midway through the second half, the Eagles continued to chip away. They even got the lead down to two with just under seven minutes left in the game. After two minutes of no scoring from both sides, Eagle Jalen Terry went to the line for three shots. He would make all three to give the lead back to Eastern Michigan.

On their next offensive possession, Staveskie found Arnett for the easy bucket, but Terry drained a deep three to take the Eagles up by two. Freshman phenom Steveson would then tie the game with a layup before grabbing a rebound on the defensive side. Out of the timeout with time winding down, he again drove to the basket and laid it in. A tie-up on the other end by (you guessed it!) Stevenson gave the Vikings the jump ball. Smith praised Stevenson’s effort after the game, “Je’Shawn is a really unique freshman[…] He’s a really high-mental type of guy.”

With 1:48 left in the game, Smith was fouled in the corner on a three (and with a bit of help getting up from former Viking Drew Lowder sitting courtside), he sank all three to put the Vikings up five.

Eastern Michigan had a chance to cut the lead to three on a pair of free throws but missed both. One has to wonder if the CSU men’s swim team behind the basket had anything to do with the misses. 

With the Vikings still only in the regular bonus, the Eagles fouled Chase Robinson who hit both parts of the 1-and-1 to take the lead back up to seven.

Quick baskets from the Eagles and Vikings saw the score at 70-63 with 23.3 seconds left. Stevenson would split a pair of free throws to truly ice the game and there was nothing more the Eagle could do. The Vikings ended the night winning 71-63.

Key Takeaways:

  1. Tevin Smith had a career game. He finished with a career-high 24 points to go with seven rebounds. Eight of those points came at the line as the Vikings continue to be more consistent at free throws this season. Coach Robinson didn’t let this effort go unnoticed. “It was a First-Team Horizon League type of effort tonight,” he mentioned after the game.
  2. The guard carousel is working itself out. With Staveskie, Chase Robinson, Smith, and Co. all bringing the ball up at different times, the guards are all learning to move without the ball. This game showed how the speed and ball handling of this slew of guards is leading to open passing lanes and good looks. 
  3. Debrick is getting back to where he was at the start of last season. Debrick got off to a slower start this season due to coming off an injury, Arnett playing out of his mind, and the emergence of Reece Robison. That is now the distant past. Debrick took his mid-range shot, blocking ability, and his athleticism all right at Eastern Michigan. It’s been a tough 12 months for KJ but this game shows how important he is to the team. “Ironically it was Eastern Michigan last season when he[…] had the [knee] injury,” said Coach Robinson. “He came in and gave us an energy boost in the first half and then in the second half he did the same thing.”
  4. Too many open looks at the basket for the Eagles. There were numerous times the Vikings didn’t rotate over and cover the basket. Probably just growing pains of a team with new guys but this will need to be tightened up before conference play.
  5. The offense will continue to be difficult to guard with the number of people who can score at any moment. This game was Tevin’s but Stevenson has had a game be his, so has Arnett, etc. Each night will continue to be someone else’s and that will be difficult to plan for if you’re another team. “Our starting lineup, I really love it,” Staveskie told the media after the game. “It’s really versatile and we defend at a high level and we’re all locked in together.”

Next up: CSU goes on the road again to face Minnesota on Tuesday night at 7 pm ET. 

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