In Cleveland State’s opener at the Puerto Rico Clasico on Friday afternoon, the Vikings earned what will undoubtedly hold up as one of their biggest wins of the season, toppling College of Charleston 67-61.
Here’s what stood out from Bayamon, as CSU improved to 11-2 overall:
1. With 54.2 seconds remaining in a back-and-forth game that neither team led by more than six points, the Vikings were ahead 63-61, and had possession of the ball. Chris Kielsmeier called timeout, and the resulting play put the game in the hands of Izabella Zingaro – not on her customary low block, but from three-point range.
It was an extremely unlikely idea, for at least a couple reasons.
The most significant was an injury Zingaro suffered during the third quarter. After catching an inbound pass following a Charleston basket, the Montana transfer abruptly grabbed her lower back and went to the floor, requiring a couple minutes of attention.
“She was in a lot of pain when I went out there,” Kielsmeier said. “I mean, she was not liking life at that moment. And I didn’t know when she was coming off the floor if she was going to be able to come back in or not.”
Then, just as quickly as the pain showed up, it disappeared.
“Within a few minutes she said she was fine, and then obviously played great.”
Zingaro, Kielsmeier has often suggested, shoots threes in practice as well as anyone on the team. That proficiency led to the coach breaking a longstanding pattern and incorporating post player triples into his offense, beginning against Northwestern on November 21st. The Canadian, however, missed her first five deep tries, leading to the notion that Kielsmeier might scrap the idea.
Instead, those previous misses influenced his strategy.
“I was intentional about not talking about it in that timeout because I didn’t want her to think about it too much, which is what I had done before,” he said.
Once the contest resumed, Jada Leonard dribbled out most of the shot clock. Eventually, Zingaro came up high to set a ball screen, and Leonard rolled around it to her right, before passing to the center near the top of the arc.
“This was Jada’s play to make,” Kielsmeier pointed out. “And they crunched it, and as I saw how they were going to crunch it and bottle it, I yelled out [to] Izzi to pop, but I think she was going to do it without me anyway, because we practice that all the time.”
Swish. And, essentially, ballgame.
“Izzi is a great three-point shooter and fortunately the stats haven’t shown that, so they didn’t guard her,” the coach observed. “And she hit it. You’ve got to hit it. Anybody can shoot it. You got to put it through the hoop.”
2. The reason Leonard ran that decisive play was because starting point guard Colbi Maples suffered a terrifyingly-familiar-looking injury during the second quarter. On the play, she drove towards the basket to her left, eventually finding Shay Magassa for a wide-open bucket. But then, after giving the ball off, she was undercut by a College of Charleston player, and fell awkwardly while in significant pain.
The good news? Maples’ surgically-repaired knee wasn’t involved, the issue is her right ankle.
“I don’t know what to call it other than just a sprained ankle,” Kielsmeier said. “We feel hopeful and confident that she’ll be fine coming out of here.”
“She’s in good spirits. She’ll get round-the-clock treatment over the next couple days, and she’ll go home and get a lot of family time and good cooking. And hopefully she’s ready to go on the 26th.”
Other than a cameo by Hanna Medina Kajevic in the immediate aftermath of the injury, Leonard ran the point for the rest of the game.
It was hardly a routine assignment, given that Charleston runs a severe form of ball pressure, one that Kielsmeier found to be much more aggressive in the backcourt than what the Cougars showed on tape. Twenty-one CSU turnovers resulted, but so did plenty of downhill buckets for the likes of Zingaro (a game-high 16 points), Macey Fegan (15), and Magassa (six).
For her part, the Bryant transfer handled the unexpected duties as well as could reasonably be asked, including 13 points, four assists, and two steals.
“She did great with it,” Kielsmeier said. “She’s hard on herself and will be the first one to say that I’m sorry for all the mistakes. She’s literally telling me that after the game. And I’m like, ‘Jada, you made all the plays.’”
“These kids just continue to learn, and the system wins, and you’ve got to get comfortable in the system, and you’ve got to find a way to make plays and do the things that you’re successful at our way. Jada’s a much more confident player off the ball and downhill into space, but hopefully what she realized tonight is that she can be that same type of player when she can create that space to get into.”
Leonard’s comfort would certainly go a long way towards alleviating the negatives of any time Maples might miss.
3. For most of the second half, Cleveland State’s lineup included Leonard, Paula Pique, Fegan, Magassa, and Zingaro. Beyond the fact that a lot of that quintet was shaped in some way by Maples’ injury, it was an interesting look: with Fegan’s versatility, CSU was able to boast two power forwards on the floor most of the time. Or two shooting guards. Or two small forwards.
If you think that sounds like it’s overrating Fegan just a bit, you probably didn’t pay $14.99 to watch the game. The Michigander was immaculate shooting the ball (4-for-4 from the field, including a big three-pointer early in the third quarter, and 6-for-6 from the free throw line), but also defensively, and as a safety valve against Charleston’s pressure.
It was a huge game, even if it wasn’t always front and center.
“That’s a sign of a special player, right?” Kielsmeier remarked. “She was great, and she was great on both ends of the floor. Kid’s just a winner, a big-time competitor, and she wills her teammates with her. I mean, she just pulls them with her. It’s fun to see kids grow up, because she’s always had that kind of competitive fight and it factor, but now that she’s getting more confidence and she’s hitting some shots, you’re going to see the best of her.”
Using essentially the same lineup throughout the second half against a pressing team is inviting disaster in some ways, but Fegan fought through that too.
“She was gassed down at the end and you wouldn’t have known,” Kielsmeier said. “You could see it in the huddle, but you wouldn’t see it on the court in between the lines.”
4. Beginning roughly around when Sarah Hurley put together a couple breakout performances during Cleveland State’s Thanksgiving MTE, the Vikings have pretty consistently enjoyed quality shooting from a rotating cast of wings.
Fegan, who hit 25.6 percent from three-point range last year (while primarily playing as a two-guard) went 2-for-4 against Oakland on December 6th, and has buried two of her three attempts since then. Ella Van Weelden followed up with a 5-for-8 combined effort in games against Niagara and Northern Kentucky within the last week.
On Friday, it was Hurley’s turn again.
The sophomore knocked down a pair of first quarter threes, at a stage of the game when CSU’s offense frequently struggled to get the ball past half court. The shots were probably overshadowed by the end of the afternoon, but that’s purely a case of recency bias.
“Those shots were as big as shots as any in the entire game,” Kielsmeier said. “Sometimes it just doesn’t feel that way, when it didn’t happen when Izzi hit it. [But] the points all count the same. If you take those two threes away, the ending of that game is played out much different.”
How did Kielsmeier know that Hurley was the right player to take those shots this time, and not, say, Van Weelden? It’s a gut feeling, but an informed one.
“Sarah practiced really well the last two days,” he recalled. “She shot the ball really well the last two days. I think sometimes players don’t realize truly how much we’re evaluating and watching everything. And sometimes you get it right, sometimes you get it wrong.”
5. The opportunity to play in Puerto Rico (and other unique locales) tends to take center stage during MTEs – and rightly so – but it shouldn’t be lost just how massive of a victory Friday was for Cleveland State, which has now won 18 straight MTE games.
College of Charleston was voted as the CAA’s preseason favorite back in October, after the Cougars went 25-8 overall last year. Led by reigning league player of the year Taryn Barbot, CofC has lived up to that billing so far by opening their 2025-26 schedule with a 7-2 record, before losing to the Vikings. The mark includes a power conference win, at Florida State on Sunday, and was good enough to place 96th in the NET rankings.
“We knew this was going to be a big-time game,” Kielsmeier said, with a hint of relief that it was over. “Charleston is so stinking good, experienced, and well-coached.”
Barbot has led the way for coach Robin Harmony’s squad once again, including 21.1 points per game across the Cougars’ first nine contests. She’s complemented well by her twin sister, Taylor, who adds 13.0 points per game, but perhaps even more significantly, offers up 7.8 assists each time out.
Not against the Vikings, however.
CSU’s matchup zone defense throttled the Barbot twins, limiting them to 12 combined points on a jaw-dropping 4-for-27 shooting effort (2-for-17 of that came from Taryn, the elite scorer of the pair). Charleston did an admirable job moving the ball around and getting above average contributions from others, but none of it was enough to overcome the disappearance of their top two scorers.
As a result, Cleveland State earned its biggest win, according to the NET, since toppling Purdue Fort Wayne in last season’s WNIT.
“There’s a lot of reasons to be tired, and there’s a lot of reasons to be winding down, and wanting to go to break or whatnot, not these kids,” Kielsmeier said. “These kids wanted to win. Their focus was great.”
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