During the national anthem Friday night at the Wolstein Center, Cleveland State guard Charlie Lee stretched his ankles. He put his right foot behind him and then his left, rotating each to warm up his lower joints as he surveyed his teammates. With two Vikings dealing with ankle issues—Andre Yates missed the game with a high ankle sprain, and Terrell Hales played despite his own sprain—and a third, Marlin Mason, missing the game with illness, who would step up for the Vikings?
It turned out to be the usual suspects: Trey Lewis, Anton Grady, and Lee himself. That trio combined for 60 points and 27 rebounds to lead the Cleveland State Vikings (12-9, 6-1 Horizon League) to a 70-66 victory over the Detroit Titans (10-11, 3-3) Friday night at the Wolstein Center. With the win, Cleveland State stays atop the Horizon League and has won six of seven. The Vikes share the top spot in the conference with Green Bay, who defeated Valparaiso Friday.
Lewis scored 30 and grabbed a season-high 8 rebounds to lead the Vikings against Detroit. He shot 9-of-19, including 5-of-11 from beyond the arc. Grady scored 15 and hauled in a career-high 14 boards, while Lee scored 15 of his own, with 13 coming in the second half.
The Vikings held a sort of protest against free throw shooting in the first half, converting just 4-of-14 from the line. They rallied to sink 16-of-19 freebies in the second half, including their last 11, to finish the job against a stubborn Detroit team.
The Titans and Vikings looking like mirror images in the first half, both sides pressing and trapping full-court. Detroit beat Cleveland State up on the glass early, grabbing three offensive rebounds in the first three minutes and eight in the first half overall. The Titans could not capitalize, as they shot an icy 10-of-29 from the field in the opening period.
The Vikings grew more comfortable as play opened up. Cleveland State managed just 14 points in the first 13 minutes, but came alive for 16 over the half’s final seven minutes. The Titans harassed Anton Grady early via ball denial and double teams, but he notched two buckets in 40 seconds late in the half—the first a three-point play, the second a dunk, and both coming on feeds from guard Kaza Keane.
The Vikes finished the half on an 11-5 mini-run, and went into the intermission with a 30-28 advantage.
The Titans came out of the locker room as though Denzel Washington gave the halftime address. They turned a two-point deficit into a 43-34 lead in six minutes, with Chris Jenkins hitting two triples. CSU made just one field goal during that stretch. Waters called a timeout to halt the run, but didn’t have any earth-shattering words for his club.
“He didn’t really tell us much,” Anton Grady said. “He jumped on us. As you see, it helped. He looked us in our eyes and gave us that look.”
The Vikings got the message and climbed back into the contest. Again it was Grady providing a steadying presence. He scored a bucket on a nifty side-step move, swatted a Titan shot, and drew a foul on back-to-back-to-back possessions. He notched another three-point play soon thereafter, hammering a two-handed dunk through contact off of a feed from Derek Sloan to make it 45-39.
“I thought that (block) changed the whole complexion (of the game),” said Waters.
A Lee jumper brought the Vikes within four, but they couldn’t quite get over the hump. CSU was within five points of the Titans for five minutes of game time. They finally took the lead back when Trey Lewis hit a double-pump layup in traffic with 4:52 to go, part of a 9-0 run that saw Cleveland State go ahead 56-52.
Two Lee free throws gave CSU a 62-55 lead with 1:12 to go, but the game was not yet decided. A flurry of (questionable) whistles against the Vikes and made buckets by the Titans kept the result in question. In a delicious bit of karma, Cleveland State needed to sink their free throws before they could put the game on ice. They put the ball in Lewis’ and Lee’s hands, and the lead guards closed the freezer door on the Titans.
“Coach has been doing a really good job lately of teaching us how to expect to win,” said Lewis.
“I don’t think we ever expected to lose,” Grady went on. “We never doubted one time that we would win this game.”
Other Notes:
- Vinny Zollo and Kaza Keane started in place of Mason and Yates. Zollo went scoreless and grabbed four rebounds in 14 minutes, while Keane scored two and had four assists and four rebounds in 28 minutes. Detroit played a lot of four-guard lineups.
- Detroit’s Juwan Howard, Jr. entered the game averaging 18.5 points per game, second in the conference. He scored 14 against CSU on just 4-of-12 shooting, and was a picture of frustration for much of the night.
- Marlin Mason spent time in the hospital, and underwent a spinal tap to test for meningitis. The team visited while he was undergoing treatment. He was released Friday, attended the game, and is cleared to play going forward.
- The timetable for Yates’ is unclear, though Waters said that high ankle sprains generally take two to three weeks to recover from.
- Demonte Flannigan played only two minutes. The reason, per Waters: “He didn’t feel like playing today. It was one of his days off. You get that sometimes.” There was more than a hint of sarcasm in that response.
- Cleveland State’s only loss of the past seven games was by two points, on the road, against a now-18-4 Valparaiso team.
- Gary Waters, when asked if he had any comment on the officiating: “No, can’t do that.” The fans could, and the refs were booed off the floor.
- During a timeout promotion that featured a three-point contest between two fans, a ball bounced into the Detroit huddle. A red-jerseyed player grabbed the ball and angrily chucked it toward the Viking bench. Ah, home court advantage.
- There was a strong contingent of students in the crowd. Said Lewis: “We’re feeding off of that energy.”
- Detroit opened the second half with a turnover, so your faithful scribe reached out to Arby’s for comment. America’s finest fast food roast beef resource came through in fine form:
@wjcgibson Did someone say turnover?
— Arby's (@Arbys) January 24, 2015
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