Vikings “Bob” Up and Down and Can’t “Wright” the Ship

Following an unexpected loss against IU Indy, the Vikings needed to get back on track against two tough opponents at home. Instead, Cleveland State (10-15, 6-8 Horizon League entering the week) dropped two games and now find themselves battling to stay in contention.

The week started off Thursday against rival Robert Morris (16-10, 8-7 HL) at the Henry J. Goodman Arena at the Wolstein Center. The Vikings starters were their normal five — Tre Beard, Jaidon Lipscomb, Dayan Nessah, Preist Ryan and Holden Pierre-Louis.

The Colonials got moving quickly with a few baskets by Ryan Prather Jr., but the Vikings were able to keep pace with Nessah supplying most of the offense. Nikolaos Chitikoudis also got on the board on consecutive possessions to put RMU up by five early.

The Vikings were able to run on the Colonials early, so Beard and Chevalier Emery took full advantage with fast break layups. Emery also added a three with 11:31 left in the half to close the gap to three. Lipscomb tied the game and then took the lead on three free throws, a three-pointer and a layup.

In all, the Vikings had taken a five-point lead on an 11-0 run. Robert Morris countered with a smaller 5-0 run to tie the game at 22, but threes from Beard and Lipscomb gave the Vikings a six-point lead with 5:37 to go in the half.

At that moment the score was 30-24. RMU would close out the half on a 21-3 run to take a commanding lead into the locker room. A Lipscomb three was the only points the Vikings could muster as the Colonials were unable to miss a shot. The Vikings only scored 33 points in the first half as the Colonials scored 45.

The second half was possibly worse for the Vikings, and it started with another RMU three to push the game to 50-33. Lipscomb finally got the Vikings on the board in the second half with three free throws at the 16:58 mark, but they didn’t get their first field goal until the 14:28 mark. 

That means from 5:37 to go in the first half to 14:28 in the second half, CSU only scored one basket.

The deficit continued to balloon as no amount of great shooting by Emery was going to save the day. Head coach Rob Summers tried some different guys with Lucas Burton and David Giddens getting some time, but nothing worked. 

With five minutes left in the game, it was a 22-point contest and all but over. Prather Jr. continued his stellar shooting with a three at the 3:03 mark to put the exclamation point on the game. 

The only reason to finish the game was to watch Manny Hill grab a rebound and make some free throws. By the end, CSU had fallen 85-68 to Bobby Mo.

Key Takeaways:

1. Against the best rebounding team in the conference, CSU had a tough task. It lost the battle 40-to-23 and gave up 15 offensive boards. No one on the Vikings had more than five — Josiah Harris. “It wasn’t the fact that they were scoring the ball,” Summers said. “It was just those backbreaking ones. It made our guys feel sad. And I was like, you guys can’t feel sad about these things. You’ve gotta feel like we gotta get better. But they just felt sad and they felt discouraged in the first half with those offensive rebounds.”
2. These offensive rebounds lead to 16 second chance points for the Colonials. The Vikings only had five second chance points. The Colonials also took 13 more shots than the Vikings.
3. CSU didn’t shoot great from three-point range, making only 8-of-26 (30.8%). Following its record-setting night of 17 against Oakland, the team only made a combined 16 over two games.
4. This colder shooting (3-for-11 from three in the second half) led to two of the lowest scoring halves by the Vikings in recent games. They scored 33 and 35 points. They’re a team that can consistently score 50 in a half, and with their defense, they need to. Emery and Lipscomb continue to be fun to watch on offense. Emery finished with 17 and is a threat to drive and to hit threes. Lipscomb finished with 17 and his length also leads to some great plays on defense.
5. Despite the loss, the day was important for Summers as pioneering coach John McLendon was honored during the game. “To be coaching at a university after him is surreal. I keep telling people it’s just an unbelievable feeling to be not only a head Division I basketball coach, but to be doing it at Cleveland State — a place that has had a huge impact on my family, [and] just on the game of basketball,” Summers said.

After the tough loss to RMU, the Vikings faced a Wright State (16-10, 11-4 HL) squad that was looking for revenge. CSU beat them 85-79 at home a few weeks ago and many fans had come from Dayton to support them.

CSU started its regulars, and WSU apparently started five clones of Steph Curry. Even though the Vikings briefly took the lead 4-2, early threes by TJ Burch and Dominic Pangonis took the lead for the Raiders.

Nessah kept the Vikings close with back-to-back buckets but Pangonis added three free throws to extend their lead. A 6-0 run by the Vikings attempted to match WSU, but this was negated immediately by two 8-0 runs by the Raiders. 

Kellen Pickett and Alex Bruskotter both hit two threes and WSU was up big — 31-18. Only an Emery layup stopped it from being a 16-0 run. With the Vikings already with their backs against the wall, Summers subbed guys in quickly — including Kamari Jones, who hit a three.

“We were just trying to figure out who was gonna be ready to play,” Summers mentioned. “I told them yesterday, ‘you ready to go? We’ll be in a dog fight.’”

The Raiders did not seem to care as Burch hit two more threes with three minutes to go in the half to grow the lead to 20 points. Foster Wonders hit a three and Emery scored five straight points to get the game down to 13 points, but a wasted possession at the end of the half had the score at 51-36.

Whatever happened in the locker room at halftime had the Vikings come out with energy. An 11-0 run by CSU quickly closed the gap to just six points with over 16 minutes to play. Harris, Beard and Jones all contributed threes during this run.

CSU inched even closer with a Nessah basket and free throw, and with 15:07 left, the Vikings were only down by five. The Raiders got back a few points, but Beard kept the Vikings within eight points with another three and plenty of game left.

At this point, Nessah went down hard and came out of the game holding his chest/shoulder. He would spend an extended time on the trainer’s table and would not return. 

Wright State scored the next seven points to grab momentum again to go with their 15-point lead. Even when Lipscomb sank three free throws, it was immediately a moot point after a Logan Woods three.

Emery took over the offense again and closed the gap to 10 points a few times, but with little time left, the Vikings were out of luck. Jones hit another three to make it 91-83, but Pangonis hit yet another WSU three only 17 seconds later.

Michael Imariagbe threw down a dunk to punctuate the Raiders getting their revenge. The Vikings again fell, 102-90.

Key Takeaways:

1.  The story of the game was WSU going 12-for-17 (70.6%) from three. CSU went a respectable 12-for-28 (42.9%). Overall, the Raiders shot 61.8% from the field (CSU 51.5%).
2. CSU committed 21 fouls to the Raiders’ 14. The Vikings lost by 12 and the Raiders made 12 more free throws. After one particular foul and review there were some words between Summers and WSU head coach Clint Sargent. They eventually shook hands and it was clear that it wasn’t actually a big deal, but instead two teams trying to win an important game. “The game started off a little chippy, but it’s because we won at their place and our guys were excited and after the game, they were celebrating accordingly, and he understood that,” Summers mentioned. “It wasn’t that type of game.”
3. Emery had an incredible game. He finished with a career-high 30 points on 13-of-18 shooting. Only two of these shots were made threes. He’s truly a force off the bench. After the game he talked about how his game is all about doing what is best for the team. “That’s just my ultimate job. I feel like, if that means I gotta score 30, if it means I gotta [get] 20 assists, 20 steals, whatever the team needs me to do, I’m trying to do,” Emery noted. “That’s really just my mindset. Just try to be better for everybody.” Summers also gushed about Emery. “He’s a sixth-man-of-the-year type candidate.”
4. Nessah went down midway through the second half and it changed the flow of the game. He had 11 points and five assists in 15 minutes. He was also in foul trouble early on, but losing the number one option clearly hurt the Vikings down the stretch.
5. The Raiders had seven blocks. Despite this, the paint points were very even (44 for WSU, 42 for CSU). Most of this was Emery getting to the basket, but it is encouraging. This is also impressive considering the Vikings were -15 on rebounds and only had six rebounds in the first half.

CSU (10-17, 6-10 HL) now heads to Youngstown State (13-14, 6-10 HL) Wednesday to try to stay above the Penguins in the standings. The team will then return home to face Purdue Fort Wayne (15-12, 9-7 HL) on Sunday.

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