Cleveland, OH-It was another back-and-forth battle on Sunday afternoon at the Wolstein Center, as the Cleveland State men's basketball team earned a 66-64 win over Robert Morris. The Vikings trailed by as many as ten points early in the second half but slowly chipped away at the deficit, and ultimately overtaking the Colonials in the final minutes. Cleveland State is 13-9 overall and 6-5 in Horizon League competition. RMU falls to 8-13 and 4-6 in league play.
Tristan Enaruna recorded his second consecutive 28-point performance. He scored 18 points in the second half, including several critical buckets down the stretch that helped to key the Vikings' comeback. Enaruna finished 11-of-19 from the field and a perfect 5-of-5 from the free throw line. He added four rebounds, an assist and a steal in 36 minutes of action.
Jayson Woodrich came off the bench and provided an offensive spark in the second half. Woodrich finished with 12 points on 4-of-7 from the field, including 3-of-6 from three-point range. Woodrich recorded 11 of his 12 points in the second half.
Tae Williams finished with 10 points on an efficient 5-of-7 from the field. Williams added five rebounds, three assists and a steal.
Cleveland State finished 25-of-51 from the field for 49 percent, and the Vikings made 75 percent of their free throw attempts finishing 9-of-12 at the charity stripe.
Cleveland State jumped out to an early 7-0 lead in the game's opening minutes. The Vikings played lockdown defense at the other end of the floor, holding RMU scoreless for nearly seven minutes to open the game.
RMU punched back. The Colonials went on a run of their own over the next seven minutes, outscoring the Vikings 23-7 to take a 23-14 lead.
Cleveland State responded with a quick 5-0 burst to draw back within four, and kept the game tight headed into halftime. RMU led 31-26 at the break.
A quick 5-0 run out of the halftime break gave RMU its largest lead of the day, 36-26 just under two minutes into the second half.
The RMU lead was eight with just under 15 minutes to play when Woodrich entered the game and provided the spark the Vikings were looking for to get back into the game. He connected on three straight possessions, hitting back-to-back three-pointers and a long two-point jumper to trim the RMU lead to two with 12:30 left to play.
The Vikings continued to inch closer, trimming the deficit to one headed into the under-8 media timeout. Cleveland State finally broke through at the 3:33 mark, when Enaruna knocked down a corner triple to give Cleveland State its first lead of the second half, 57-56.
RMU re-took the lead with 1:45 to play on a Markeese Hastings floater in the paint. Hastings led RMU with 18 points in the game.
The Vikings took the lead back for good on the next possession, as Chase Robinson nailed a huge three-pointer with 1:20 to play that put CSU in front 62-60.
Enaruna knocked down another huge shot on the following possession to put the Vikings up three with 27 seconds to go, and following a defensive stop Drew Lowder iced the game at the free throw line, sinking two free throws with three seconds left to give the Vikings a five-point lead.
RMU's Josh Corbin sank a three-pointer as the final buzzer sounded, but it didn't matter as the Vikings held on for the two-point win.
Cleveland State heads back on the road for two games next week, starting first with a trip to Detroit Mercy for a matchup against the Titans on Thursday night at 7 p.m.
