Nov. 28, 2009
Final Stats | Quotes | Notes
Contact: Brian McCann
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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- On a day that Vikings lifted the 2009 Horizon League Championship banner to the Wolstein Center rafters, the new look Vikings struggled to find their legs after a long road trip to Mexico, falling, 69-54, to Wichita State on Saturday afternoon.
The loss snapped CSU's Wolstein Center record win streak at 14 games, making it the third longest home win streak in school history.
CSU struggled to find its legs from the onset, never leading in the game and falling behind by as many as 17 in the first half (36-19, 2:58).
To make matters worse, the Vikings opened the second half by missing its first 16 shots to fall behind, 56-33, before Trevon Harmon finally knocked one down with 8:43 left in the half.
CSU regrouped from there, going seven-for-13 from the field down the stretch to close to within 13 but the deficit proved too large to overcome.
"I thought Wichita State came in here today focused and knowing what they had to accomplish," CSU head coach Gary Waters said. "They are a good team and we knew that. They basically took it to us and we didn't respond. We just came back from a tournament in Cancun where two teams took it to us, but we responded.
"We didn't shoot the ball well today and it hurt us. Norris (Cole) had two good games in Mexico and suddenly, he can't make a shot," Waters added.
Clevin Hannah led a trio of Shockers in doubles figures with 16 points. Toure' Murry added 15 points and a game-high 11 rebounds while Garrett Stutz came off the bench to score 11 points.
Harmon was one of the few Vikings to find his legs, scoring a career-high 23 points, going five-for-11 from three-points. Center Aaron Pogue turned in his best game as a Viking, going five-for-nine from the field and six-for-seven from the line enroute to scoring a career-high 16 points with nine rebounds.
Shooting was the nemesis of CSU all night. After going nine-for-22 from the field in the opening stanza (.273), the Vikings could manage just seven-for-29 shooting in the second half (.241) to finish with a season-low .258 effort for the game (16-62). The only place that CSU seemed comfortable was at the foul line where it converted 17 of its 19 attempts (.895).
Wichita State on the other hand seemed to like the shooting lines in the Wolstein Center. The Shockers were 13-for-24 in the first half (.542) and was nine-for-19 from three-point for the game (.474) in improving to 4-1 on the year.
The Viking defense did create some opportunities, forcing 17 Wichita State turnovers and making 11 steals. CSU did a good job of taking care of the ball, making a season-low eight turnovers, their fifth game of 12 or less this season.
The Vikings have little time to regroup, heading back out on the road this week to begin Horizon League play with road games at Wright State on Thursday (Dec. 3) at 9:00 p.m. and at Detroit on Saturday (Dec. 5) at 1:00 p.m.
"The next couple of games are going to be tough," Waters said. "I don't think we are ready for them yet and both of those teams are playing well right now."
