The Vikings won two games by a combined total of 73 points. One of these games was an NAIA team but they still beat Oakland by 17 points. Here’s the breakdown of a fun week.
Home Game vs. Oakland University
With Oakland University head coach Greg Kampe and former CSU player Jayson Woodrich back at the Wolstein Center, everyone expected a close, hard-fought game. Instead, the Vikes decided to continue to shoot, pass, rebound, and defend better and better.
The Vikings (with their starting five of Isaac Abidde, Dylan Arnett, Tevin Smith, Tahj Staveskie, and Ebrima Dibba) and Golden Grizzlies both got off to hot starts from deep. By the first media timeout (at the 12:59 mark because of clean play…more on that below), both teams had made three long range shots and Oakland held a slim 15-12 lead.
With the late media timeout, both teams only had time to score one more time before the second media timeout (again both threes). The story of these first few minutes of the game was definitely not CSU. It was Oakland’s Malcolm Christie hitting his first four threes to lead his team to go up 26-21. Other than his shooting (including another three taken away after he stepped out-of-bounds), Oakland was overwhelmed by the Vikings defense from the beginning to the end.
The Vikes and Golden Grizzlies then traded baskets and CSU found themselves still down 30-27. This moment was the inflection point of the entire game. CSU would outscore OU by 12 points (17-5) from that moment until halftime. This 44-35 lead felt even larger with the great end-of-half run and they would not relent.
Dibba continued to show his experience again by contributing five first half assists and some other excellent passes. Chase Robinson had four assists of his own. Staveskie showed his hot shooting again with 11 points and Arnett had six rebounds to go with his seven points.
In an insane turn of fate, CSU shot 50% in the first half from three. They went 6 for 12. Adding in their 18 rebounds, the entire effort was maximum.
Smith had an excellent first half as well. He had twelve points. Another half like that would put him at 24 points for the game. That would’ve been great. Instead, he scored 25 second-half points.
By the 15:31 mark in the second half, the Vikings had a 20-point lead. Oakland went on a mini-run and closed it to 12 quickly but head coach Daniyal Robinson wisely called a timeout to calm everyone down with 12:53 left to play. The next four minutes saw the Vikings build their lead back to 16 as both Smith and Staveskie got over the 20-point mark (27 for Smith and 20 for Staveskie).
With four minutes left the Vikings had control but then, Smith decided he wanted to have more fun. He scored basket after basket climbing from 32 to 35 to 37 points quicker than it seemed possible. The only sad part about his 37 points was he didn’t get a chance to shoot a three to get to 40.
The scoreboard showed 92-75 at the end in favor of the Vikings.
Key Takeaways:
- Smith was incredible and somehow he only scored nine points on threes and six points on free throws. The rest were a flurry of other normal shots. Just a great display of ball control and shooting ability from everywhere on the court. His coach had glowing things to say after the game. “Tevin Smith was special tonight.”
- Staveskie and Smith combined for 57 points. Having two players now scoring at a high level is taking this team to a different place. Instead of wondering who will ever score, the Vikes now wonder who to give the ball to because a lot of them can score. Staveskie specifically coming off an injury last season is seeing himself play better. “As far as stamina-wise and feel for the game, I had to get it back.”
- The other story of the game was CSU having three turnovers and none in the first half. They protected the ball at all costs. Dibba dished out eight assists as Chase Robinson added six. From the first week of the season to now, the Vikings look like a different offense. They move the ball around fast and run on every play. Opposing defenses are constantly having a hard time keeping up and getting tired by the end of the game.
- The Vikings made 11 three-pointers and made 13 of 16 free throws. Scoring 92 points against an NAIA team is one thing, but against a team that won a NCAA tournament game last year? Wow.
- Woodrich continued his struggling start to the season and only scored three points for the Golden Grizzlies. If this was the last time he played at the Wolstein Center, he will be missed.
Home Game vs. Midway University
“Midway” through the article, we are almost out of things to discuss. The second game for CSU this past week was a member of the same conference as previous opponent Brescia University.
Midway is also a member of the River States Conference and also located in Kentucky and…at least they put up 60 points compared to Brescia’s 37? Problem is…Cleveland State put up 116. You read that correctly. One hundred and sixteen points. That’s a point every 20.7 seconds of the entire game.
The starting five for the Vikes was normal other than Chase Robinson started instead of Smith. Throughout the contest, 11 Vikings would play 13 or more minutes and they all would contribute.
Just like the Brescia game, there isn’t much to gain from a play-by-play of the game. CSU fell behind 3-0 and 5-3 early on and then just piled on the rest of the game. Three straight threes by Tahj Staveskie and a dunk by Chase Robinson put the Vikes up 11-5 and then it was just dunk city and a three-point barrage combined.
Although the gym had the feeling of an early morning high school basketball practice (maybe they should hand out free coffee to games at noon), the play by the Vikings on the court certainly had energy.
Alongside the dunks, the Vikings were blocking shots everywhere on the court and overall, just playing the way a D-1 team should compete against an NAIA team. One last note on Midway, they did compete much better than Brescia as Jalen Cincore had 13 points and Decoreio Smith finished with 11 points. Overall, they looked like a competitive team, just over-matched.
Key Takeaways:
- KJ Debrick. In 22 minutes, Debrick had 13 points, 10 boards, and SEVEN BLOCKS. He did this all while committing only one foul. When asked about the training he and Arnett practice to not foul he talked about “just trying to stay straight-up. Me and him tell each other what happens when we do foul and we don’t foul.”
- Je’Shawn Stevenson is amazing both around the rim and on the perimeter. He finished with a career-high 23 points while shooting 8-11 (2-3 from deep). How many times can he win the Horizon League Freshman of the Week Award before they name it after him? When asked how he is able to control the ball and his body so well around the rim, he noted that “[g]rowing up in Chicago, it’s a lot of driving[.] I also played against older people a lot so you have to kind of get used to the bumps and the fouls.”
- With expanded minutes for everyone during this game, Chaz Watson and Danny Young played a lot and showed again what they can contribute. Watson finished with four threes and Young with two. Young also played tremendous defense on the Midway guards. Coach Robinson was also excited to see them out there and “[f]or them to get long runs and take advantage of their minutes.”
- There was so much going on that Arnett’s 18 points almost got lost in everything. He’s putting up a monster season so far. 9.8 points and 7.9 boards plus over a block a game.
- The efficient way the Vikings are playing is going to lead to continued success. They had 28 assists (eight by Dibba again) and only seven turnovers. All of this happened as they shot 12-26 from three and 18-21 from the line. Overall they shot 54.5% from the field. That will win a game against anyone.
Next up for the Vikings:
Wright State comes to town next Sunday at 3 PM EDT for a conference showdown.