Cleveland, OH-In a battle between two of the top teams in the Horizon League, the Cleveland State Men's Basketball team emerged victorious, taking down Youngstown State 81-78. The Vikings improve to 16-11 and 11-5 in conference play. The league-leading Penguins fell into a first-place tie, and now are 12-4 in the league and 20-7 overall.
The game was tight the entire way, neither team led by more than eight points and the lead changed hands ten times throughout the game. Cleveland State finally seized control late, as the Vikings stretched the lead out to eight with just over a minute to play and made their free throws down the stretch to seal the victory.
Tae Williams led a group of four Vikings in double figures, tallying his second 20-plus point game of the season. Williams finished with 20 points and six rebounds, as well as two assists and three steals.
Tristan Enaruna continued his dominant play, finishing with 18 points on 7-13 shooting from the field. This game marks the 14th consecutive game that Enaruna has scored in double figures.
Drew Lowder had 15 points, including three of the four made three-point field goals for CSU. One of those triples was critical down the stretch in the second half, as Lowder nailed a long fadeaway shot from the right wing that pushed the Viking lead to five with three and a half minutes to play. Lowder also had the highest plus-minus rating of any player, finishing at plus-19 for the game.
Deshon Parker finished with 12 points and three assists. Parker was steady at the free throw line, finishing 8-12 at the charity stripe. Most of those free throws came late in the game and helped to keep the Vikings in front as the clock ticked down.
Youngstown State got off to a good start and opened up a six-point advantage just over four minutes into the game. The Vikings clawed back to tie the game at 17 by the second media timeout.
From there it was back-and-forth, with neither team holding more than a five-point advantage the rest of the half. Cleveland State led by one at the break, 32-31
The second half was more of the same, as the two teams stayed within one possession of each other for most of the rest of the game. It wasn't until back-to-back buckets from Lowder with just over three minutes to play that Cleveland State was able to create some separation.
Cleveland State remained comfortably in front the rest of the way, as the Viking lead never dropped below three points the rest of the way. The Penguins made a late push, but were never able to draw close enough to tie it up late.
Cleveland State remains at home for the final weekend of the regular season. The Vikings play host to Wright State on Friday night, and tickets are on sale for just $5 apiece. The game will be broadcast nationally on ESPNU starting at 7 p.m.
