In the midst of a downturn, Cleveland State needed a win against two middle of the pack teams in the conference. The Vikings couldn’t get a victory against either and now find themselves in real danger of the 10-seed vs. 11-seed play-in game to start the Horizon League Tournament.
On Wednesday, the Vikings (10-17, 6-10 in the Horizon League to start the week) traveled down the road to Youngstown State (13-14, 6-10 HL) in a battle of the ninth place teams. The big story of the game was the absence of Viking standout Dayan Nessah. He was injured in the previous game against Wright State, and did not play in either of this week’s games.
Without Nessah, head coach Rob Summers started Jaidon Lipscomb, Tre Beard, Kamari Jones, Josiah Harris and Holden Pierre-Louis. The Penguins started the 2016 regular season Golden State Warriors.
Right off the start, YSU was unable to miss from deep. A Cam Polak three put them up 3-0 and they would never relinquish the lead. Jones cut the deficit to 4-3 with a three of his own, but that was as close as the Vikings would get all day.
Cris Carroll continued his great offensive season for the Penguins with a pair of free throws followed by a three before Jason Nelson got in on the fun to push the game to 13-4.
Back-to-back Viking threes by Harris and Ivan Spirov got the game closer, but the Penguins were unrelenting. A 12-0 run rocketed their lead to 15 points. Lipscomb and Jones briefly paused this onslaught with a pair of threes but the Penguins hit a myriad of free throws to stay ahead.
Chevalier Emery also hit a three for the Vikings, but Vlad Salaridze negated it with a three just 14 seconds later. Salaridze next made it a 16-point game with another three before CSU made a mini-run looking to go into halftime only down eight.
YSU had a different idea as two more threes from Salaridze and Tae Blackshear made the score 52-38.
Carroll got more involved to start the second half with a pair of baskets to push the lead up to 18. The Vikings were barely hanging on and Lipscomb’s shooting was the only factor keeping it remotely close.
Even with his good shooting, the Penguins shot better and buried two threes right after a Lipscomb three at the 14-minute mark. A three and a free throw by Carroll on separate plays pushed the lead to 24 points, and the game was over with 12 minutes to play.
Beard hit a three to cut it to 17 and Lipscomb hit one to cut it to 16 but it was too little, too late. The score hovered above 20 points for the remaining minutes as both teams cleared their bench.
The Penguins were up by 26 points, but a Vikings bucket with 33 seconds to go put the final score at 106-82.
Key Takeaways:
- The old rebounding issue came up again for the Vikings as YSU out-rebounded them 38-to-25. Harris had eight of the rebounds and only three Vikings had more than one.
- CSU was also dominated inside as the Penguins out-scored them 36-to-22 in the paint. Without Nessah, it was clear the Vikings lacked an inside presence outside Harris.
- YSU shot 14-for-22 (63.6%) from three. CSU went 16-for-47 (34%). This disparity is incredible and was the clear main difference in the game.
- Lipscomb almost single-handedly kept the Vikings in the game. He finished with 32 points and connected on eight threes.
- Outside the threes, the Penguins also took 23 more free throws (and made 18 more). YSU only committed 15 fouls.
After the disappointing in-state rivalry game, the Vikings came home to face Purdue-Fort Wayne (15-13, 9-8 HL).
As it was Senior Day, Summers started seniors Beard, Lipscomb, Emery, Foster Wonders and Lucas Burton. They got off to a hot start with threes from Lipscomb and Emery to jump out to a 6-2 lead.
The Mastodons stormed back, with conference leading scorer Corey Hadnot II doing the heavy lifting. Back-to-back threes by Maximus Nelson then put them up 18-13. Hadnot hit his own three with 12 minutes to go in the half and the Vikings were yet again looking at a 9-point deficit.
Instead of giving up, a 6-0 CSU run (stopped by another Hadnot three) followed by a 5-0 CSU run quickly tied the game at 25.
The Vikings were not able to grab the lead as the Mastodons went on their own 7-0 run to snatch the game back. Beard and Lipscomb hit threes on consecutive possessions and the Vikings had their first lead since the start of the game.
This small one-point lead was short-lived, as PFW scored the next six points with another Nelson three as the highlight. It actually looked like the Vikings would go into the half tied after a Jones layup and Emery three, but Hadnot hit a buzzer-beating three to take a 43-40 lead into the locker room.
The first four minutes of the second half were a whirlwind. An 18-6 run by the Mastodons completely grabbed all momentum. Emery cut into this with a three, but it didn’t look promising for the Vikings.
The only thing that kept CSU in the game over the next five minutes was getting to the foul line. They kept the deficit around 10 to 15 points, but at right under 10 minutes to go the Mastodons went on a small run and were up 77-57.
Within the next two minutes, the Vikings cut that deficit in half with three made threes. A full court press and free throws cut even more into this deficit and they slowly got the score to 84-80 with over four minutes to go.
PFW missed crucial free throws down the stretch that allowed CSU to crawl back to within three on a Harris three and then two points on a Preist Ryan free throw with over two minutes left.
Hadnot called “game” with a free throw followed by a three as the shot clock expired with nine seconds to go in the game. The Vikings couldn’t connect on their threes in their final possessions and dropped their fifth straight game, 92-86.
Key Takeaways:
- Hadnot finished with 28 points including 6-for-7 from three. He also added seven assists. He’s truly a scoring machine. “He’s a Player-of-the-Year type candidate,” Summers said after the game. “That shot at the end of the game, he had to work for that.”
- The seniors finished with 57 points and showed why Summers picked them as his first squad. “A lot of these guys that committed to me to come into my year one, they’re special in my heart,” Summers mentioned. “It’s not over yet, but it’s been a great journey with them. It’s been … magical.”
- In the final moments, Lipscomb fouled out. He finished with 20 points and CSU was without two of its main scorers. Hopefully Nessah returns soon as he changes the team. “[Nessah’s] been progressing,” Summers noted. “We’re looking forward to getting him back sooner than later. He makes us different.”
- The Vikings had 29 fast break points and their full court press looked great at the end of the game. They’re a great team when they play the entire 90 feet.
- It was a great team game from both sides. The Vikings had 21 assists on 28 field goals and the Mastodons had 20 assists on 32 field goals. Everyone looked for the correct pass.
CSU (10-19, 6-12 HL) stays home to face Northern Kentucky (17-12, 9-9 HL) before heading to Robert Morris (19-10, 11-7 HL) for the regular season finale on Saturday.
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