VIDEO: Senior Day

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Playing at home for the final time this season, the Cleveland State men's basketball team fell to Oakland, 82-66, on Senior Night at the Wolstein Center.

The Vikings fell to 8-21 overall and 5-11 in the Horizon League, while Oakland moved to 17-12 overall (9-6 HL).

STAT LEADERS

• Anthony Wright led the Vikings with 18 points and seven rebounds.
• Kenny Carpenter posted 15 points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals.
• Jamarcus Hairston added 10 points, while Tyree Appleby chipped in nine points and four assists.
• Bobby Word and Stefan Kenic both scored seven points.

COACH SPEAK

• "The game came down to rebounding, especially in the second half. They got back almost 80-percent of their misses and basically shot until they scored. That really impacts your offense when you're taking the ball out of the basket and walking it up. You can't get anything in transition. We tried to fight back, but couldn't get it under that nine point mark."
   – Head Coach Dennis Felton

FIRST HALF RECAP

• The first half was tight throughout and featured six ties and four lead changes with neither team leading by more than five points.
• CSU jumped out to a quick 7-3 lead three minutes in, but a 9-5 Oakland run tied the game at 12-12 at the 12:32 mark.
• The Vikings opened the largest lead of the half (31-26) on a Wright three-pointer with just over four minutes to play.
• The Golden Grizzlies closed the half on a 12-5 run to take a 38-36 lead at halftime.

SECOND HALF RECAP

• Carpenter's layup got the second half scoring started as CSU tied the game 38-38, but Oakland came back with 11 straight points to open up a 49-38 lead with 16 minutes to play.
• Oakland's lead reached 56-39 at the 13:32 mark, but three-pointers from Tyree Appleby and Jamarcus Hairston helped spark a CSU run to cut the deficit to 60-49 with just over 11 minutes to play.
• Six straight points from Oakland pushed the lead back to 17 points (66-49), but the Vikings came right back with eight points to slice the lead under double figures (66-57) with seven minutes to play.
• It was as close as the Vikings would get the rest of the night.

KEY STATS

• CSU's six seniors – Carpenter, Terrell Hales, Jamarcus Hairston, Derek Sloan, Bobby Word and Wright – were honored in a pre-game ceremony prior to playing in the final home game of their careers.
• CSU hit 10-of-11 (.909) from the free throw line.
• CSU committed a season-low tying six turnovers, while Oakland made just nine.
• The Vikings scored 11 points of Oakland's miscues.
• Oakland held a 41-19 advantage in rebounding and grabbed 13 offensive rebounds, leading to 20 second chance points. The Golden Grizzlies scored 40 points in the paint.

UP NEXT

• The Vikings hit the road for a pair of games to conclude the regular season next week.
• CSU will play at Wright State on Monday (Feb. 19) at 7:30 pm and at Youngstown State on Saturday (Feb. 25) at 7:00 pm.
• Both games will be doubleheaders with the CSU women's squad taking on Wright State and YSU first.