Moon Township, PA-The Cleveland State men's basketball team earned a critical late-season road win at Robert Morris Sunday afternoon, defeating the Colonials 73-71 in a game that came down to the final possession. Cleveland State improves to 17-12 overall and 10-8 in the Horizon League. RMU falls to 10-19 and 6-12 in league play.
Drew Lowder banked in a layup attempt from the left side with 1.1 seconds remaining to break a 71-all tie and give the Vikings the road victory. Cleveland State led by as many as 11 points in the game before RMU stormed back in the second half to draw even. The Vikings had the game's final possession and worked the shot clock down before Lowder drove to the basket for the winning bucket.
Tristan Enaruna continued his stellar play recording a ninth consecutive game with 20 points or more. He finished with a double-double, his team-leading fourth of the season, registering 24 points and 12 rebounds. He finished 10-of-21 from the field and added four assists to his stat line.
Tae Williams finished just shy of a double-double with 15 points and nine boards on the afternoon. Williams scored 11 of his points in the first half to help the Vikings build the double-digit first half lead.
Lowder finished with 10 points, all of which came in the second half. He was 5-of-15 from the floor including the game-winning bucket, and tied Enaruna for the team lead in assists with four.
Cleveland State got off to a strong start, opening up a six-point advantage in the first seven minutes of game play. Williams drove to the basket for a lay-in to put CSU up 14-8 with 13:40 left in the first half.
The two teams played relatively even over the next ten minutes before the Vikings closed the first half with a flurry to open up a double-digit lead. Cleveland State scored three straight baskets culminating with an Enaruna jumper with two seconds left in the opening half to take their largest lead of the afternoon, 42-31, into the halftime locker room.
The Cleveland State lead remained at 10 near the midway point of the second half. The Vikings led 59-49 with 11:30 to play when RMU began to chip away.
The Colonials slowly worked the deficit down to a one-possession margin and eventually tied the score at 69 with 1:14 to play. Both teams converted second-chance opportunities on their next possessions to keep the score tied at 71 with 30 seconds remaining.
With a one-second differential between shot clock and game clock, Cleveland State bled the clock down setting the stage for Lowder's drive to the bucket for the winning score. RMU had one last opportunity with a second left on the clock but a last-second heave was off the mark allowing the Vikings to secure the road victory.
The Vikings return to the Wolstein Center for a matchup with Green Bay coming up on Wednesday night in the penultimate regular season game of the 2023-24 season.
