Both Cleveland State (6-14, 10-21 Horizon League) and IU-Indy (3-17, 7-24 HL) came into the Horizon League tournament play-in game with not much going right. The Vikings had lost seven straight and the Jaguars had lost six in a row.
The Vikings were also down two starters in Dayan Nessah and Josiah Harris who were both out with injuries. These circumstances meant Tre Beard, Jaidon Lipscomb, Preist Ryan, Holden Pierre-Louis and Kamari Jones took the floor in the 10-11 seed playoff. IU Indy countered with Finley Woodward, Reece Hagy, Maguire Mitchell, Kyler D’Augustino and Jaxon Edwards.
In the end, CSU was able to finish over the century-mark with a final of 101-93.
A blazing quick start was expected but CSU and IU-Indy took it to a new level. The Jaguars jumped out to a 9-0 lead courtesy of their full court pressure and some good shooting. A steal and three by Mitchell forced the Vikings to call a timeout less than two minutes into the game.
CSU would finally score on a Jones three out of the timeout but another Mitchell three negated it immediately. A flurry by the Vikes would tie the game at 12 shortly after as Lipscomb converted on a three and layup on separate fast breaks.
IU-Indy head coach Ben Howlett talked about how familiar this felt to him. “This game kind of describes our season in a nutshell. We got off to a great start, and[…] then the lead was erased pretty quickly.”
The next five minutes was basically both teams trading either baskets or turnovers depending on what they felt like. Edwards threw down a dunk and was fouled but Lipscomb hit another three to put the Vikings on top.
Mitchell hit another three for the Jaguars as the game floated back-and-forth by one or two points…as was apparent with Chevalier Emery putting the Vikings right back in front with a basket.
Another Emery three (as the shot clock expired) started to separate the game a bit but a great alley-oop to Edwards (with a foul) tried to stop the momentum. Instead, a 7-0 run by the Vikings didn’t allow this to occur.
Despite this run, D’Augustino did get the Jaguars back in the game with a three, and another Edwards basket closed the deficit to just four with 3:28 to go in the half.
Manny Hill caught the entire Jaguars team napping with an untouched drive for a layup but Woodward punched back with a basket of his own. Ryan and Woodward would trade baskets as the half wound down and Lipscomb added a three to build a nine-point lead.
The Jaguars came up empty on their last first half possession and the Vikings took a 45-36 lead into the locker room.
Ryan had dominated the boards all half with nine rebounds but Emery (ten points) and Lipscomb (13 points) led the way in the scoring column for the Vikes. The Jaguars got 12 points from Edwards and 11 from Mitchell but only shot 44% overall to CSU’s 63%.
The teams combined for only seven free throws in the first half. CSU missed all three of theirs and IU-Indy went 2-for-4. The Vikings were able to out-pace the Jaguars by hitting seven threes compared to their four.
Although Pierre-Louis started the second half with a tough lay-in, it was Lipscomb’s deep shooting that kept the Vikings in front. He hit two threes as the Jaguars tried to claw back in the game with their pressure defense. A forced turnover and basket by D’Augustino cut the lead to ten with 16:20 to play.
About five minutes into the half, the Vikings started switching up the game plan with Lipscomb on the bench and started to get to the rim at will. The Jaguars countered with scoring from every angle as they continued to hang around with D’Augustino getting hot.
Ryan mentioned how they were able to expose the Jaguars’ defense and get downhill all game. “I feel like they kind of put themselves at a disadvantage whenever they’re so aggressive on the ball,” he stated.
Kameron Tinsley got IU-Indy within striking distance with a three himself while getting fouled and the game was far from over with 11:54 to play and the score at 68-59. The Jaguars then turned up the pressure even more and the Vikings couldn’t get the ball up the court. “The way I describe it is ‘Let’s play like we’re down eight with two minutes left’ for the entire game,” Howlett noted.
A “play you don’t see often” almost sank the Vikings completely as Beard moved on a “spot” inbounds play resulting in a turnover. The Jaguars immediately scored again to make it 67-64.
The Vikings continued to struggle to get the ball in against the press and IU-Indy capitalized almost every time down the court. Edwards hit yet another three to whittle the deficit to two points and another CSU turnover gave them the ball back shortly after.
A short 5-0 spurt by the Vikes put them back up by eight (80-72) but D’Augustino got to the line to cut it back down to six. Edwards then negated a beautiful Hill drive with two more foul shots.
Beard added a traditional three-point play for the Vikings to grow the lead to 11 but D’Augustino continued his free throw prowess with another two points to immediately cut it back down to nine points.
As the game turned into a free throw-palooza, the Vikings finally hit their foul shots and were able to keep the Jaguars at an arm’s length of about 10 points the rest of the way.
Key Takeaways:
- Six total players scored exactly 23 points. Vikings Ryan, Emery and Lipscomb hit the mark while D’Augustino, Edwards and Mitchell got there for the Jaguars. In an anticipated high-scoring game, both teams showed up.
- “Beast” Ryan also added 12 rebounds (nine in the first half). He’s come up very big for the Vikings lately with Nessah out. Vikings head coach Rob Summers praised Ryan and “his ability to respond from the Robert Morris game, where he didn’t play his best basketball.”
- IU-Indy’s season ended with another tough loss in Howlett’s first season. The team looked very good at times but always seemed to get tired towards the end of games. “If you look at our box scores, we’re playing six to seven to eight guys, but in order to do this the right way, you need eight to nine guys for sure and possibly even ten to get it done,” said Howlett. “We had a margin of error that was very slim.”
- The Vikings played a full team game without their top scoring option again. Hill gave seven good minutes and everyone who played added something a bit different. “[Hill] is a kid who doesn’t really get down,” Summers remarked. “Obviously, we don’t have a lot of minutes for guys in the guard positions because we’ve got pretty dynamic guards, but for [him] to just stay engaged and come out in an opening round game and be able to give us solid minutes and get downhill…no pun intended…he was really impressive.”
- The Vikings hit their threes but it was their inside game that truly shined. They scored 48 points in the paint on the night. This was a lot different than last time against IU-Indy where they played into the Jaguars’ game plan a bit too much. “I think sometimes in the past, we’ve [got] the ball out of the press and then stopped and then just waited and let another trap come or let them really set up.” For most of the game, the Vikings made sure to play fast and drive to the hoop.
Cleveland State now heads to top-seeded Wright State (20-11, 15-5 HL) on Wednesday. The Vikings are 1-1 versus the Raiders this year including a win on the road, but it will be a tough task.
Ryan said their mentality is to “win one game at a time” and Summers added that their “goal is to win a championship.” Time will tell, but now, the Vikings are one step closer to that dream.
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