In the first round of the 2026 Horizon League tournament, held in the Wolstein Center on Wednesday, Cleveland State climbed out of an early 13-point hole against Oakland, eventually surviving, then advancing on late pairs of free throws by Izabella Zingaro and Macey Fegan. The 81-80 overtime victory over the eighth-seeded Golden Grizzlies propelled the Vikings, now 24-8 overall, to the HL semifinals, which will take place on Monday in Indianapolis.
Here are five things that stood out from an electric evening in downtown Cleveland:
1. If seeking to understand the psychology of elite athletes, there are far worse places to start than Fegan.
With CSU trailing by one in the waning stages of overtime, Colbi Maples’ jumper fell short of the mark. Fegan rebounded and went up with the ball, but was disrupted and missed everything. Then, given a second opportunity, thanks to the quick hands of Zingaro, who jarred the rebound loose, she was fouled.
So the junior from Michigan headed to the free throw line with 0.5 seconds showing on the clock. Everything, from advancing in March, to a season-ending loss, to a second overtime period, was in play at that moment, all dependent on what Fegan did with a pair of 15-footers.
Crippling pressure? Not exactly.
“I mean, you only have to hit one, and that’s 50 percent,” the forward deadpanned. “As soon as you see the first one go in, the second one’s good too. We shot free throws yesterday [on] that same exact basket, me and Izzi did. At the end of the day, it’s just a free throw and nobody’s guarding you.”
She might as well have been talking about a pickup game at the rec, and not a do-or-die conference tournament matchup.
“Just so you know, that’s so totally a Macey Fegan answer,” Chris Kielsmeier offered. “Like you guys may not know her personality and how she rolls, but that’s how she rolls.”
That cold-blooded demeanor helped Fegan spin home both foul shots, securing an 81-80 victory and a place for the Vikings in the Horizon League semifinals.
“Those are the best games to play in,” Fegan said. “To blow out a team by 40, I mean, yeah, that’s cool, but to be in a tight overtime game, that’s what every player wants. The adrenaline’s running…fans may not want that, coaches may not want that, but [to] players, an overtime game is awesome. Back and forth, it’s awesome because everything means a little bit more.”
Of course, without Zingaro, Fegan would never have had the opportunity to experience her definition of “awesome.”
With three seconds remaining in regulation, and Cleveland State trailing 71-70, Maples’ turnaround from high in the paint lingered on the rim for a bit, then fell off in slow motion. In the moment, it had all of the markings of a win-lose shot, veering all the way towards the latter when Oakland’s Karinna Trotter grabbed the rebound and was immediately fouled.
Trotter left the door ajar for the Vikings by splitting the subsequent free throws to bring the score to 72-70, though only one second remained at that point. CSU advanced the ball to the frontcourt with a timeout, then elected to have Paula Pique lob the ball directly to Zingaro down low. The freshly-crowned Horizon League Newcomer of the Year was fouled – by Trotter, her fifth – before even touching the ball, and headed to the free throw line.
The situation was at least a little bit reminiscent of Zingaro’s fateful end-of-game trip to the stripe at Green Bay on January 2nd, when a pair of misses sealed CSU’s fate in a close call against the Phoenix. However, the stakes this time weren’t some random mid-season contest, but the Vikings’ entire 2025-26 campaign and indeed, the career of Zingaro, who is in her final year of eligibility.
Didn’t matter. Foreshadowing Fegan, the 6-4 Canadian calmly buried both shots to force overtime, and give Cleveland State an unlikely second life.
Zingaro finished with 29 points, matching her career high, as well as a game-high ten rebounds.
2. Measuring a player against the likes of Caitlin Clark, Jaloni Cambridge, Maddy Siegrist, and Aneesah Morrow certainly isn’t something done lightly. But that’s exactly who and what Oakland’s Makenzie Luehring was on Wednesday.
The HL Freshman of the Year dumped 39 points through the Wolstein Center nets, the second-highest total of any Kielsmeier-era Vikings opponent, trailing only Morrow’s 42 in Cleveland State’s upset at DePaul on November 15, 2022.
On the way up the ladder of the eight different players who have scored 30 or more points against CSU since 2018, Luehring passed Cambridge (31 for Ohio State in last season’s opener), Siegrist (35 in Villanova’s win over the Vikings in the 2023 NCAA Tournament), and Clark (38 during a December, 2023 showcase game in Des Moines).
Luehring also broke the Horizon League tournament’s single-game scoring record, a mark established by former Milwaukee great Jessica Wilhite that stood for 25 years.
“She’s one of the best players in the country, not one of the best players in the league,” Kielsmeier marveled. “I mean, that kid can play and she’s so shifty and the change of direction and her basketball IQ, like her assists and what she does defensively.”
The Wisconsin native was on the floor for every second of the contest and, as Kielsmeier said, did plenty away from the ball – including five rebounds and four assists – in addition to scoring almost literally half of the Golden Grizzlies’ points.
Among many game-shifting moments, the rookie’s biggest single highlight was probably a buzzer-beating three-pointer to end the third quarter. On the play, Layla Gold missed a three-pointer, and Pique initially grabbed the rebound, but Trotter managed to poke the ball into the hands of Filippa Goula. Goula then found Luehring on the wing, where she calmly sidestepped a charging Sarah Hurley in front of the OU bench and swished home the triple.
The bucket interrupted what seemed like clear Cleveland State momentum. The Vikings had outscored Oakland 47-29 since the final seconds of the first quarter, and seemed on track for an uneasy, but low-drama victory. Instead, the CSU lead was reduced to two entering the fourth quarter, a clear signal that things would eventually head to the wire.
“I mean, she is a complete, total player and she put on a show tonight,” Kielsmeier said. “I think we had her guarded better than what it looked like, we’ll have to watch the tape, but she’s special.”
That Luehring shot at the end of the third quarter completed one of Goula’s eight assists. The Greek guard, a Viking from 2023-25, closed out her college career by nearly pulling off a double-double on helpers and rebounds, as she also had eight boards.
3. The game couldn’t have started much worse for Cleveland State, which was tagged with a whopping nine turnovers in the first quarter and fell behind 19-6 at one juncture.
Those giveaways were a sore spot for Kielsmeier, though not for the usual and obvious reason. Instead, he felt that they were disproportionately caused by uncalled fouls, and became increasingly vocal about it over the early stages of the evening. That steady drumbeat reached its crescendo with 1:55 left in that opening quarter when Kielsmeier roughly slapped the scorer’s table twice and was hit with a technical foul.
“I got a technical foul for slapping the scorer’s table when [the ref was] 80 feet away from me,” Kielsmeier explained. “I didn’t say anything. I just showed some emotion. It wasn’t at him, but that’s what he says you can’t do this time of year.”
The facts support that story, given that it happened right after Luehring was called for traveling, and while Maples was calmly dribbling up the court.
Whether intentional or not, the fireworks did seem to have at least some impact on the officiating as the contest proceeded. Oakland’s Sereniti Roberts-Adams and CSU’s Jada Leonard each received technicals for post-scoring demonstrations two minutes apart during the third quarter, one sequence that upset both teams. Regardless, by the end of the evening, the Golden Grizzlies had been whistled for 23 fouls, to just 18 for Cleveland State. The Vikings shot 23 free throws to OU’s 16.
“I’m thankful that our players got it done so I don’t have to live with regret, because I’ve got to show more composure and be better,” Kielsmeier added.
4. Beyond the usual headliners like Zingaro and Fegan, numerous other Vikings made what could be called game-winning plays, particularly given the context of a one-point overtime result. In all, nine Cleveland Staters saw the floor on Wednesday, and though the five starters took 199.5 of the available 225 minutes, those four reserves each produced a key moment.
Pique, of course, lobbed the pass from the sideline to Zingaro that helped produce overtime. During the extra period, with Oakland holding an 80-79 lead in the final minute, Laurel Rockwood stuffed Gold to give the Vikings one last chance, which ended with Fegan’s game-winning free throws.
Kielsmeier credited his bench players for pushing aside the completely natural “I should be playing more” thoughts to be ready when their moment struck.
“These individuals and what’s formed this team, as to who they are right now, got done because of unselfishness and sacrificing of your own individual wants and desires,” he said. “And we all have a hard time doing that, right? Because we all want what we want. And they have given of themselves.”
Arguably, the most visible of the role player moments came during the final five seconds of the first quarter, after a Gold miss. Ella Van Weelden grabbed the rebound, then heaved the ball roughly 60 feet ahead, a pinpoint feed right into the bread basket of Leonard, who finished with a buzzer-beating layup.
Given that the Vikings trailed by 13 immediately before that point, then by just two at halftime, the sequence can fairly be called a momentum shifter.
“We work on it a lot in practice, so I wouldn’t say [it was] too hard,” Leonard said. “It was just making sure I squared my shoulders up and went up right and got it off in time. But I feel like we’re prepared for moments like that, and it wasn’t a surprise that she threw it and it went in.”
“Those two points were pretty important, huh?” Kielsmeier rhetorically added.
Leonard, who finished with 15 points and four assists, also came up clutch after the game, when she blocked out a raucous post-game celebration to sit in a quiet corner of the locker room and complete a communications quiz. The quiz, which the guard described as “four sentences, ten questions each,” had a two-hour submission window that overlapped with the unexpectedly-long game.
“That’s what these student athletes have to go through,” Kielsmeier reflected. “These kids are just incredibly smart. I’m amazed by their intellect. It’s just so far over my head, but I’m just a coach.”
5. With the victory, Cleveland State remained the only school in the Horizon League to qualify for the conference tournament’s final two rounds during each of the seven seasons they have been held in Indianapolis.
“We ultimately found a way to get it done, and we’re going to Indy for the seventh year in a row,” Kielsmeier said. “How many teams in the country can say they’ve been in their conference tournament semifinals seven years in a row? That’s a distinction that’s with them forever, and it’s remarkable.”
The bad news for the Vikings? Their semifinal opponent on Monday will be Youngstown State. The Penguins have been something of a bogey team for CSU ever since Melissa Jackson – a one-year Kielsmeier assistant – took over the program prior to last season. YSU has won the last three games between the teams, including a sweep of the 2025-26 regular season series.
Fegan, decidedly unbothered by high stakes, welcomes her team’s latest challenge.
“I think it’ll be fun to play them again,” she said. “We haven’t beat them this season and what better time to do it?”
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