Dec. 30, 2010
Final Stats | Quotes | Notes
By: Robert Ivory
CLEVELAND, Ohio-The Cleveland State Vikings needed a spark to get their Horizon League home opener going. That spark was ignited by junior forward Aaron Pogue, whose double-double helped the Vikings beat the Loyola Ramblers 73-55 Thursday night at the Wolstein Center.
"I look at two things when I look at the stat sheet," Cleveland State head coach Gary Waters said. "If we rebounded and if we defended and we did that."
"I feel good about where we're going," Waters said. "But I still feel we have a long way to go."
Pogue played a major role as the big man ended his night tying a career high 16 points (8-11), grabbing a season-high 12 rebounds, during his best performance so far in the season.
"Going into this game we knew it was going to be tough," Pogue said. "Loyola is a physical team. Everyday we go into practice and prepare I'm still working to reach my full potential. I don't think I've reached it yet, but I'll continue working toward it."
Trevon Harmon added 14 points, and both Jeremy Montgomery and Norris Cole each had 12.
The Vikings outrebounded the Ramblers 38-32 (CSU led the offensive glass 15-12) and Cleveland State made Loyola turn the ball over 18 times, turning into 28 CSU points.
Cleveland State's win moves tthem to 14-1 on the year and 3-0 in the Horizon League.
Pogue's dominate performance helped the Vikings early.
However, the Vikings started the night shooting cold, as they shot just 2-9 in the first several minutes, as they missed their first six shots over the first four minutes.
Pogue was the difference as he had a hand in keeping the Ramblers close, as the junior grabbed four rebounds, part of his ten in the first half, before the Vikings registered a basket, which was a Pogue layup (15:06).
CSU trailed 5-0 early (16:45), but took the lead for the first time on a Harmon three (13:15) to make it 7-5.
Cole and Harmon would start the night 0-2 each, but created opportunities on the other end. The offense was jump started by the CSU defense. Three steals by the Vikings turned into six early Viking points. Harmon twice in a row stole the ball and grabbed the bucket on the other end, extending the Vikes lead to 13-7
Loyola tried their best to not let the Vikings pull away, as the Ramblers pulled within a bucket at the 9:01 mark with a layup from Terrence Hill.
After that point, CSU went on a 24-11 run to end the half and take a commanding control of the matchup. Pogue made plays on both ends, as he finished the first half with a double-double scoring and collecting ten rebounds.
That was the difference until the Vikings found their offensive footing.
"That's the thing about this team," Pogue said. "You never know who's going to show up. We have so many scorers and people can do other things."
Despite the cold start, the Viking offense would reach 57.1% (1:56) shooting in the half and ended shooting 53.1% at the intermission.
Trevon Harmon also had ten points at the break, but he, Cole, and Charlie Woods ended the half with two steals each.
A Woods jumper with 6:26 left in the half pushed the Vikings out to their first double-digit lead of the night, 26-15.
Freshman Devon Long was an offensive presence that Loyola did not have an answer to, as Waters had to go to the freshman since Joe Latas had two fouls from earlier in the half.
Long scored back-to-back buckets, to help the Vikings maintain a 12 point lead with the bench on the floor. Coming off the bench, Long scored a total of six points in a matter of three minutes and had just a point less than Loyola's top scorer at the time (Terrance Hill with seven).
CSU did not let the Ramblers score a bucket from the field in the last 3:31 of the half, and over the last five minutes, CSU outscored Loyola 13-6. The Vikings took a 41-24 lead into the half.
Cleveland State led the battle of the boards at the half, 19-12 and had turned the ball over just three times. Loyola shot 40%, but turned the ball over nine times.
"We have been putting a lot of time in practice working on rebounding the basketball," Waters said. "That's been our focus and I know mentally it's making them think about going to the glass."
The second half was much of the same for CSU, as the Vikings had their way with the Ramblers as a Jeremy Montgomery layup at the 12:31 mark opened a 22-point lead for CSU.
A pair of free throws from Charlie Woods took Cleveland State to it's biggest lead of the night, 71-40 with 6:04.
Cole did have an off night, but finished with six assist and three steals.
"Norris did what he had to do for the team," Waters said. "We look at Norris and think he's trying to score every time. Norris is looking at openings and he's starting to realize that he can bring them along and also score at the same time."
Loyola drops to 9-5 and fall to 0-3 in the league.
The Vikings finish their two-game home stand in a matchup with the Flames of Illinois-Chicago on New Years' Day. Tip is set for 2:00 p.m. in the first men's game played on New Year's Day since the 1930-31 season.
