Cleveland State finally got back out on the road for a meeting at Robert Morris and Youngstown State. With a combined home record of 13-2 between RSU and YSU, CSU had a tall task at hand. Luckily, the Vikings are rolling.
Away Game at RMU
CSU started this game with their recent normal starting lineup of Tevin Smith, Tahj Staveskie, Ebrima Dibba, Dylan Arnett, and Reece Robinson. The first half was one of the most back-and-forth, competitive halves of the season so far.
The Colonials jumped out to a quick four-point lead but a Staveskie three and two Robinson dunks gave CSU a 7-4 advantage. Three RMU free throws tied the game before Robinson got another two points on a layup. At the first media timeout, CSU was holding a small 9-7 lead.
RMU scored the next six points before a Smith three cut the deficit to one. The next five minutes saw both teams going back-and-forth with buckets, turnovers, and misses highlighted by a three-pointer by CSU freshman Chaz Watson.
Watson also contributed to a bucket and free throw by Stevenson that grew the lead to four but RMU scored the next four points to tie the game again. RMU briefly took the lead a few times but free throws by Arnett and Chase Robinson tied the game before a layup by Arnett with 27 seconds left in the half seemed to mean the Vikes would at least go into the locker room tied.
RMU’s Kam Woods had other plans as he sank a three to put the Colonials up by one (38-37) at half. In typical CSU fashion, a bit of rest and resetting at halftime was all the Vikings needed.
16 seconds into the second half, Staveskie hit another three and CSU would never trail again. YSU tied the score at 40 but it was all CSU the rest of the way. Arnett scored six points in the next five minutes and then the first dagger came at the 10:28 mark as Chase Robinson gave the Vikings a 10-point lead with a three.
Robinson scored a layup as well seconds later followed by a Smith basket and another Staveskie three. RMU was now looking at a 17-point deficit. A Je’Shawn Stevenson layup and free throw plus two free throws by KJ Debrick resulted in a 20-point lead for the Vikings with 6:35 to play. It was over.
From this point on, RMU would actually outscore CSU 22-13 but the hole was too big to dig out. An Arnett dunk with 1:14 to go put the finishing touches on a dominant second half as CSU closed it out to win 80-69 and move to 5-1 in the conference and a half-game out of first place.
Key Takeaways:
- CSU had another great passing day. They finished with 18 assists leading to a lot of open shots and 40 points in the paint. Considering they struggled to run anything on offense at the beginning of the season, this amount of great play is incredible.
- Smith finished with a double-double-half-double? 11 points. 10 rebounds. 5 assists. In a college game, that’s amazing. He only committed one foul and turned the ball over twice while shooting an efficient 5 for 9 from the field.
- Scoring from everywhere is the name of the game for the Vikings on offense this year. Five guys finished in double figures again (Smith, Arnett, Chase Robinson, Staveskie, and Stevenson). That’s impossible to game plan for as an opponent.
- The CSU bench is filled with talent. Head Coach Daniyal Robinson went to Watson for three minutes for a different look. Watson hit his one shot (the three), grabbed a rebound, threw an assist, and played very hard. No matter who comes in, the team runs smoothly.
- CSU is able to turn their defense up to a different level when they want. With multiple looks on full court presses, zones, man-to-man, etc. Coach Robinson has figured out exactly what works when playing Horizon League teams. Just when a team catches on, he throws something else at them and shakes up the game.
Away Game at YSU
Last time CSU played at YSU, the house was packed with Penguins fans looking to build on a great year. Finishing second in the conference and getting a first round bye in the league tournament had high expectations thrown on the team. To top off the expectations, CSU star Tristian Enaruna was not available. Instead, CSU blew the roof off YSU’s house and moved on in the tournament.
This meeting had almost as much hype as the top two teams in the league met for the first time (both with only one conference loss). Instead of CSU (11-6, 5-1 HL) being down their top scorer, this time YSU (12-6, 6-1 HL) was without their top scorer EJ Farmer. Would the team without their best scorer win again? “We prepared as if he was going to play. I know they beat Northern Kentucky without [Farmer], so we were prepared to play either way,” Coach Robinson said after the game.
Starting the same starting five as the Robert Morris game, the Vikings won the tip and got the first basket on an Arnett lay-in. The Vikes showed their great defense by pressuring YSU on their first possession to get a jump ball but the next few minutes were atrocious.
YSU guard Ty Harper threw up a prayer as the shot clock expired to put the Penguins up 3-2. The shot going in was bad enough, but Smith also got called for a foul (notice the use of the phrase “called for a foul” and not “committed a foul” as the fouls were a story all game long) and Harper sunk the free throw. Another YSU three, this one by Juwan Maxey, plus a tip-in and dunk by the 7-3 Gabe Dynes and suddenly CSU was down 11-2.
Luckily the first media timeout settled down the offense and defense for the Vikings. Arnett scored a quick two on an assist from passing-wizard Dibba and Staveskie hit his first three of the game. At this point, the Vikings were only down four but 22 seconds later another Penguin (Jason Nelson) hit a three to go back up seven.
Over the next four minutes, CSU continued to claw its way back into the game before a typical monster Arnett dunk (assisted by Dibba) put the Vikings back on top 17-16. An Arnett layup grew this lead before YSU Cris Carroll made a layup and free throw to tie the game at 19.
YSU outscored CSU 7-2 before the next media timeout to take a 26-21 lead. It was this moment the foul discrepancy started to be very visible. YSU had been called for only two while CSU had been called for seven. With both teams playing very physical defense (especially around the rim), the fouls were extremely random.
“Freshman who plays like a veteran” Je’Shawn Stevenson drove for a great lay-in and hit a three to cut the deficit to two before Smith hit his own three to give the Vikings the lead for a few seconds. Another Dynes dunk gave YSU the one point lead going into the last media timeout of the half.
With 2:17 left in the half and CSU down by one, the next two minutes were pivotal to the rest of the game. YSU would only score one point before halftime while CSU got a nice jumper from KJ Debrick and two more threes from Smith. The second of these threes came as time expired and from very deep.
This shot came after YSU intentionally fouled CSU three times (with bench players) to waste time and not allow CSU to run a play. They were only able to do this because of the insane foul discrepancy but in the end Smith made sure it didn’t matter. The Vikings took all the momentum and a 37-31 lead into the locker room.
To the amazement of everyone who watched the first half, the first play of the second half resulted in a YSU foul. The next time on offense for the Vikings also resulted in a YSU foul. Despite these fouls, CSU only scored one point on these two possessions and before anyone could blink, YSU had cut the score to 38-36.
The next two offensive trips for the Vikings resulted in two assists by Smith for a layup by Reece Robinson and another Staveskie three. YSU cut the lead to six on a three but back-to-back threes by Chase Robinson and Staveskie put the Vikings up 51-39 and the Penguins were forced to call a timeout.
Halfway through the second half, Chase Robinson hit another three to balloon the Vikings’ lead to 16 and frankly the game seemed over. A bit of back-and-forth ensued over the next five minutes with YSU closing the gap a bit but time looked to be running out.
With a little under six minutes to play, Penguin Cris Carroll decided to put on a show. With YSU down 14, Carroll hit back-to-back threes, got a steal, made a jumper, hit ANOTHER three, and sunk two free throws. All of a sudden it was a one-point game.
This game was not YSU’s to win though. Staveskie hit another three to put the lead back up to four before YSU and CSU traded two free throws each. Another beautiful feed by Dibba to Smith put the Vikings up six with just over a minute left. It was now desperation time for the Penguins as they threw up multiple threes. Siem Uijtendaal banked one in for YSU but CSU was repeatedly fouled and made almost all of their free throws to ice the game. It may have been a bit scary because of Carroll, but CSU won 80-72.
Key Takeaways:
- Taking the three “fouls” at the end of the first half and the four fouls at the end of the game away from YSU, they were only called for nine real fouls all game. CSU was called for 17. There was a lot of contact on many CSU drives that looked very strange.
- Staveskie continues to grow into a great offensive player. He finished with 21 points including four big threes (one probably being the game’s most important shot after YSU closed the game to one point). His ability to shoot from anywhere plus drive hard makes him extremely versatile. “[Staveskie’s] confidence is growing game by game. His leadership is growing[…] That’s a byproduct of our entire team, their ability to trust each other, their ability to take on information, and believe in what we are doing,” noted Coach Robinson. Add in great passers like Dibba, Chase Robinson, and Smith and it’s a great match.
- Arnett finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds. Many of these were very athletic rebounds where he had to keep the ball alive as he grabbed it away from YSU. He has become an amazing rebounder this season and continues to make sure opposing teams don’t get second chance points.
- Not only did the Vikings shoot 50% from three again (11-22) but they also outscored YSU 28-16 in the paint. As noted with Staveskie above, the versatility of this offense is insane. Considering they’re a defense-first team, the way the offense has been playing is very fun. To go along with Staveskie and Arnett, three other Vikings scored in double figures again (Stevenson, Smith, and Chase Robinson).
- The Vikings are 6-1 in the conference (their lone loss coming in Milwaukee weeks ago) and have won eight games in a row. Taking over first place in January was not something many people expected, but Coach Robinson has pushed every button at the right time so far. If you’re going to score 80 points and play great defense, you’re going to win a lot of Horizon League games. Coach Robinson had this to say about what was said during a pivotal timeout as YSU made their run, “Let’s stay together. Let’s get the ball in. We’re fine. Those guys did most of the talking in the huddle.” He continued, “[Our players] weren’t rattled. We had our composure[…] They kept their composure in a hostile environment.”
Next up for CSU:
The Vikings (12-6, 6-1 HL) are back home to take on Northern Kentucky (9-9, 4-3 HL) on Wednesday at 7 pm EDT.
