Vikings “pretty close” to ideal in win over IU Indianapolis

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For Cleveland State, Saturday afternoon’s 61-39 win over IU Indianapolis in The Jungle wasn’t necessarily a work of art. The Vikings struggled to put the Jaguars away until the third quarter, weren’t always a significant offensive threat – leading scorer Mickayla Perdue was held to ten points on 3-for-12 shooting – and found themselves in a healthy degree of foul trouble, including starting guard Macey Fegan, who picked up two infractions within the first four minutes of the game.

Then again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and CSU head coach Chris Kielsmeier saw something approaching perfection for much of the game. That’s a noteworthy observation from a man who has frequently lamented just about every component of his heavily-structured system throughout an often-inconsistent season.

“I think this was pretty close,” he said. “The guts of the game were pretty close to exactly what we’re looking for, for Cleveland State basketball.”

For one thing, the Vikings’ defense was dominant for the second outing in a row, following up a mid-week win at Robert Morris with seven steals from six different players, part of 16 forced Jags turnovers. Those miscues helped produce 22 CSU points, while none of the visitors’ 11 turnovers led to a single IU Indy score, a “pretty significant” piece of the contest, in Kielsmeier’s estimation.

The Jaguars’ roster features several explosive scorers, headlined by all-conference selection Katie Davidson, but also including talented newcomers like Nevaeh Foster and Shania Nichols-Vannett. However, after that trio was nearly unstoppable against Wright State on Wednesday while combining for 48 points on 19-for-27 shooting, they managed only 26 points on a 9-for-31 effort three days later. As a team, IU Indy shot just 27.5 percent from the floor, and 11.8 percent from three-point range.

“That outside rotation was better for us, to hold them to 2-for-17 from the three-point line speaks volumes,” Kielsmeier said. “Not just the two [makes], but the 17 attempts. They can spread it and go to a five-out set, and they really try to let them fly. We prepped on that heavy, and I thought the execution was really good.”

Kielsmeier got the opportunity to use his depth to an extent rarely seen this season, thanks mostly to Fegan’s foul trouble, including long and productive runs for Grace Ellis (a season-high 23 minutes), Filippa Goula (26 minutes, her most this season against a Division I opponent), and Mya Moore.

After a start to the game that the coach called “kind of flat,” Ellis, Goula, and Moore entered midway through the first quarter, after Fegan’s second foul, and made an immediate impact. First, Ellis found Jordana Reisma down low for two, then Goula and Moore scored shortly after that. Moore’s bucket triggered an 11-0 run, largely driven by the reshuffled lineup, that gave CSU the lead for good.

In all, Ellis finished with three rebounds, three assists, one steal, one block, and two points – that last stat coming through a spectacular tip-in of a three-point miss by Destiny Leo during the first-quarter run.

“Grace was ready when we needed her,” Kielsmeier said. “We talked in the locker room about how significant of a game she had, [even though she had] two points. How can you impact the game, and score very little? In this system and how we play, you can do that in a significant way, but you’ve gotta have players that fully understand that.”

Goula, another player whose stats fail to capture her full impact, scored three points and grabbed a steal. Moore scored six points and hauled in four rebounds.

“It was fun to see Grace and Flip, and some others, Mya had some really big minutes for us,” Kielsmeier said.

Cleveland State’s coaching staff was also able to work Reisma into the offense early and often, after the star post player was limited to just one field goal attempt and seven points by the Jaguars in last month’s meeting between the teams at the Wolstein Center.

In the Circle City, however, Reisma produced her third double-double of the season, including an efficient 21 points and 12 rebounds. Eleven of the points and three of the rebounds came during a 13-2 third-quarter run that finally pushed the deceptively-close meeting into rout territory.

“That’s just when you know how special of a player you are, when you score 21 points, and you’re kind of like…what, really, she had that many?” Kielsmeier said. “The first game, they fronted us hard, and she got one shot. We were going to throw up over it today, and I don’t like to do that from the three-point line, but we practiced it, kind of changed some positioning things with it, and we got several looks off of that.”

The Vikings are now 15-4 overall and 7-2 in Horizon League play, though Kielsmeier believes that Saturday’s effort has the potential to lead to plenty more.

“We’re coming,” he said. “We’re getting closer to where we want to be.”

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