Men’s Basketball starts Wisconsin road trip at Milwaukee Friday Athletics

Posted: Feb 18, 2022

SETTING THE SCENE

The Cleveland State men's basketball program has its eyes set on its second straight Horizon League Championship, but standing in its way is three road games to close the season, which continues against the Milwaukee Panthers on at the UWM Panther Arena on Monday night. CSU enters the contests atop the Horizon League standings at 17-7 overall and 13-4 in conference play. Cleveland State and Milwaukee have already played once this season, an 84-71 Viking victory back on Feb. 6 in Cleveland.

A WIN ON FRIDAY WOULD…

Start a new winning streak for the CSU program…Make it three straight victories over Milwaukee overall…Keep Cleveland State on the top of the Horizon League standings with just three games left to play in the regular-season…Get the Vikes back to .500 on the year away from the Wolstein Center (3-4 entering tonight)…Improve CSU to 18-7 on the year.

THE CLEVELAND STATE/MILWAUKEE SERIES

Friday night's game will be the 59^thmeeting between the two Horizon League programs. Cleveland State trails the all-time series 31-27, as the two sides have gone back and forth in recent years. From 2015-2019, the Panthers rattled off a 7-1 mark against CSU, but the Vikings have flipped the script recently and have won six of the past seven meetings, which includes a 71-65 victory in the Horizon League Tournament semifinals a year ago.

LAST TIME OUT…

In one of the wildest games you will ever see, the Cleveland State men's basketball program found itself on the wrong side of an instant classic as the Vikings dropped a triple overtime Horizon League thriller to host Purdue Fort Wayne, 102-98, at the Memorial Coliseum this past Monday evening.- Cleveland State got a balanced offensive attack as seven student-athletes reached double-digits in scoring.

- The group was paced by Torrey Patton, Tre Gomillion and Broc Finstuen who all finished with 14 points, respectively. Patton added two boards and an assist, Gomillion chipped in seven rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block while Finstuen wrapped things up with eight rebounds and two assists.

- D'Moi Hodge (13 points), Nathanael Jack (12), Deshon Parker (10), and Yahel Hill (10) also reached the 10-plus point plateau.

- CSU scored 42 points in the paint and got another 46 off the bench.

- The game featured 13 lead changes and 12 times that the contest was tied.

- The contest was also featured as the lead-in of the SportsCenter broadcast by Scott Van Pelt.

VIKINGS ALL OVER THE NATIONAL RANKS

CSU enters Friday's conference clash with its name all over the national rankings:

- Ninth in the nation in assists per game with 17.1 per contest (tops in Horizon)

- 27^thwith 15.79 turnovers forced per matchup (second in Horizon)

- 30^thin field goal percentage, shooting at a clip of 47.6 percent (tops in Horizon)

- 30^thin steals per game with 8.6 per contest (fourth in Horizon)

- 32^ndwith 411 total assists (tops in Horizon)

- 46^thwith assist-turnover ratio (tops in Horizon)

- 53^rdin turnover margin at 2.5 (second in Horizon)

- 53^rdwith 206 total steals (fourth in Horizon)

- 58^thin scoring offense with 76.5 points per game (tops in Horizon)

- 61^stin the country in 70.8 won-lost percentage (tops in Horizon)

Also ranked in the Top-100 in free throws attempts (501 – 70^th), field goal percentage defense (41.5 – 88^th), scoring margin (6.5 -97^th), three-point field goal defense (31.9 – 99^th) and offensive rebounds per game (11.12 – 100^th)

COOKIES

D'Moi Hodge is one of the best student-athletes at generating steals in all of NCAA DI as the senior guard ranks 15^thin the nation in steals per game with 2.25 per contest. Hodge also slots in at 21^stoverall in the country, and tops the Horizon, in total steals with 54.

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