INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – After leading the Vikings to a 2-0 week, Cleveland State women's basketball junior Cori Coleman has been named the Horizon League Co-Player of the Week. The award is Coleman's second of the season, as she also earned player of the week honors on December 30, 2013.
Last week, CSU picked up a 76-66 road victory at Valparaiso, and then defeated league-leader Youngstown State, 84-80. With the wins, the Vikings now stand at 10-11 overall and 5-3 in league play, tied for fourth place in the league standings.
"Cori has been great in Horizon League play, she has hit big shots for us at crucial times and she has done an excellent job of hitting the offensive boards," head coach Kate Peterson Abiad said. "Cori has a way of quietly scoring 20+ points through the course of a game. At Valparaiso last week all eyes were on Des as she knocked down seven three's, then we get the box score and see that Cori went 9-for-11 with five three's and scored a game-high 24 points. She just goes about her business and impacts our bottom line in an impactful and efficient way. I'm so happy with the way she is playing, and this is a well deserved honor for her."
Coleman led the Viking offense in both games last week, notching back-to-back 20-point performances for the second time this season. Against Valparaiso, Coleman tallied 24 points on a 9-for-11 effort from the field (.818) – including a 5-for-7 performance from three-point (.714) – along with a career-high tying seven steals. The Springfield Gardens, N.Y. native then backed that up with a 22-point performance against YSU and grabbed nine rebounds, coming up just shy of her second double-double this season.
Over the two games, Coleman knocked down eight three-pointers, moving her into eighth place on CSU's three-point field goal list with 131 career three-pointers.
Coleman, who ranks ninth in the league averaging 15.2 points per game, is now just 63 points shy of becoming the 24th Viking to record 1,000 career points. Entering Saturday's game against Wright State, Coleman has 937 career points.
Coleman and the Vikings will begin the second half of their league schedule on Saturday (Feb. 8), when they host the Wright State Raiders at 2:00 p.m. CSU will be going for the season sweep of the Raiders, as the Vikings earned a 98-82 victory at Wright State earlier this season.