Cleveland State University (4-10, 0-3 Horizon League entering the week) was moments away from going 2-0 on the week before four steals by the Mastodons quickly turned the tables on the Vikings. With the win, CSU got its first conference victory, but there is still plenty of work to do.
Home Game Against IU Indy (4-10, 0-3 HL) on Monday, December 29th
With a fully healthy squad, the starting lineup was again different — Jaidon Lipscomb, Tre Beard, Preist Ryan, Dayan Nessah and Josiah Harris. Head coach Rob Summers pointed to the team’s health as a major factor in the win.
“To get back whole is the biggest thing for us coming back from winter break,” Summers said.
The game’s scoring was started by Jaguar Kyler D’Augustino, who buried his first three-pointer. The Vikings came right back with an 8-0 run highlighted by three baskets right at the rim. An IU Indy basket put the score at 8-5 Vikings at the first media timeout.
Chevalier Emery entered for the Vikings and quickly got on the board with a layup and a three to stretch the lead to 11. A layup by D’Augustino was followed by another layup by Emery. Both players were getting to the basket easily against two of the bottom defenses in the league.
Lipscomb connected on a three to pull ahead by 14, but IU Indy negated it with a three of its own that started a 7-0 Jaguar run. Harris stopped the run with a three for CSU as the Vikes went up 27-17 with under eight minutes to go in the half.
The next four minutes were mainly controlled by IU Indy as they closed to within four points of CSU. Luckily, the Vikings went 5-for-6 from the line to build the lead back to ten. The Jaguars continued to also hit free throws, but a Harris layup with three seconds left in the half put the Vikings ahead 46-38.
D’Augustino came out hot again as he made a basket right out of halftime to get the Jaguars within six points, but Beard hit a three to go up by nine yet again.
Four straight free throws put the Vikings up by double digits; the lead would stay up there the rest of the game. A 6-0 run by CSU had the lead all the way up to 17 as the Jaguars couldn’t stop fouling on their full court press.
D’Augustino was the Jaguars’ last hope — he cut the deficit to 11 with back-to-back buckets with under ten minutes to go. He also cut the deficit to ten points three separate times in the closing minutes, but it wasn’t enough.
Nessah fouled out as the Vikings were up by 12 with just under two minutes to go. With the tempo the Jaguars play at — No. 1 in the nation — there was still plenty of time left to get back in the game.
Instead, D’Augustino fouled out with 1:18 left and the game was essentially over. The Vikings took the game 99-86 for their first conference win.
Key Takeaways:
- Both teams connected on seven three-pointers, but the Jaguars had 13 more attempts. IU Indy continues to shoot threes at a high rate, but shooting under 20% isn’t going to win many games. The Vikings didn’t shoot perfectly from deep, only 30.4%, but it was enough to pull away.
- There weren’t a crazy number of fouls in the game, but five players fouled out and another two had four fouls. Three Jaguar starters fouled out and the Vikings’ top two scorers for the game fouled out.
- Speaking of scoring, Emery finished with 29 points and most of it was at the rim and free throw line. He connected on 12-of-14 foul shots and only had one three. He made every shot the Vikings needed down the stretch. “These last couple weeks, he’s really turned over a new leaf of, ‘let me really pour into what it’s like to be here at Cleveland State,’” Summers noted. Asked how he continued to get to the rim, Emery mentioned it’s how they practice. “Just playing off two feet, getting downhill, and [Nessah] is a great guy getting downhill, so [am I].”
- Nessah finished with 23 points and eight boards. “We just have to be aggressive and shots will fall in”, Nessah said after the game. With Harris back, who had a double-double, it opened up a lot for Nessah on offense. “He gives us that fire to dive on the floor, go for loose balls,” Summers said. The Vikings may not be tall, but if the two of them can stay healthy they might be able to get enough rebounds to stick with teams.
- D’Augustino had 27 points. It seems every game against CSU, the other team has a guy go for almost 30 points. Its interior defense still wasn’t great with only 44 points in the paint against a shorter team.
Away Game at Purdue Fort Wayne (8-8, 2-3 HL) on Sunday, January 4th
The same starters again came out swinging for the Vikings against the Mastodons. Six of the first seven shots the Vikings took were from three as they connected on only one. PFW hit four threes of its own and quickly saw themselves up 12-5.
A Foster Wonders three stopped the run before a Mastodon basket put them ahead 14-8. This was the turning point of the first half with 12:21 left. PFW would not score a field goal again until the 4:46 mark, and the Vikings found their groove.
The Vikings chipped away with a few baskets as the Mastodons tried to stay ahead at the free throw line, but back-to-back threes by Wonders and Beard shot the Vikings ahead by eight.
Harris hit another three right before the PFW three at the 4:46 mark to end their field goal drought and negated the Mastodon three with another deep shot seconds later.
A bucket, free throw, then a three on consecutive possessions by Emery suddenly had the lead at 16 points. PFW closed the gap slightly to 43-32 at half but since they had a 14-8 lead, the Mastodons had been outscored 35-18.
PFW continued its comeback right out of the locker room with a three to bring the deficit under 10. The teams started trading baskets as Harris, Mastodon Maximus Nelson, and Ryan made consecutive threes.
Back-to-back dunks by Darius Duffy followed by a Corey Hadnot II basket cut the lead to just five with over 15 minutes to play. The Vikings were suddenly in severe danger of losing their large first half lead.
Hadnot continued the run with a layup and free throw and it was abruptly a one point game. Lipscomb came to the rescue with a pair of threes, and Emery slashed to the hoop for two more points. The Vikings had stretched their lead back up to nine with just under ten minutes to play.
The Mastodons chiseled away, but Beard hit a three and Wonders added a basket to put the Vikings up ten with six minutes to go. Then the bottom fell out for CSU.
PFW scored the next six points, but a pair of free throws by Emery still had the Vikings leading by six with four minutes left. A three-point play by Mikale Stevenson cut that lead in half.
Four straight steals by PFW (three by DeAndre Craig and one by Stevenson) sank the Vikings’ ship. With 2:11 to play, Stevenson hit a three to put the Mastodons ahead by four and no amount of luck or fouls could help the Vikings win.
Even the “hack-a-Shaq” idea with Duffy didn’t work completely as he went 1-for-2 at the line, and all of CSU’s tries at the end were stopped.
A game in which the team led by 16, and 10 with six minutes left, turned quickly into another loss for the Vikings, 74-71.
Key Takeaways:
- Foul trouble again showed itself in this contest. Five Vikings finished with three or more fouls while Emery, Nessah and Harris all had four. This greatly hampered the Vikings’ ability to score down the stretch. These fouls also led to 17 points at the line for PFW. In contrast, CSU only made nine free throws.
- The rebounding battle was actually won by the Vikings without much from Harris, who had only one board (due to the above foul trouble). Nessah and Preist both finished with nine boards and Lipscomb added seven. The Vikings were plus-ten in the category, but they also were outscored by 12 in the paint. 14 offensive rebounds didn’t lead to that many more points.
- Both teams scored 23 baskets and the Vikings made five more threes, but the free throws were the deciding factor. The Vikings put up 42 threes, while the Mastodons put up 37. They shot fairly well from outside with 38.1% from deep, but it would’ve been nice to get to the basket a bit more towards the end and maybe draw some fouls.
- CSU committed 15 turnovers to PFW’s eight. This has been an issue all season long for the Vikings as the Mastodons were plus-seven on points off turnovers.
- Only eight Vikings entered the game and Holden Pierre-Louis only played eight minutes. That’s a lot of minutes for seven guys in a fast-paced offense. Will Summers go deeper into his bench with guys like David Giddens or Lucas Burton? That’s just speculation as no one sees practice but running out seven guys in a 40 minute contest can be tiring by the time March comes around.
Next up for CSU (5-11, 1-4 HL):
The Vikings travel to Oakland (8-8, 4-1 HL) on Friday at 7 p.m. before heading to Detroit Mercy (6-8, 3-2 HL) Sunday at 1 p.m.
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