Jan. 2, 2010
Contact: Brian McCann
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YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - Gary Waters told the Viking players during practice this week that the non-conference season was over and that CSU was going to get back to playing the type of basketball that earned them the Horizon League Tournament title and NCAA berth last year. On Saturday at Youngstown State, the CSU players complied with Waters' request, dominating from start to finish to race past the Penguins, 70-48, in the Beeghly Center.
"That junk is over with," Waters said of the 4-10 start and streak of nine losses in 10 games. "We got away from what we want to do, what we do successfully as a team, and what we need to do to win. That isn't the case now. We are going forward and forgetting all of our mistakes to date"
The first change that Waters made came in the starting lineup where he inserted Jeremy Montgomery in place of Jared Cunningham to give CSU a lineup of three guards, an undersized small forward (D'Aundray Brown) and center Aaron Pogue.
The pieces in the revamped lineup all seemed to fit together well.
Montgomery, who had averaged 19.3 points off the bench in games against ranked opponents West Virginia, Ohio State and Kansas State, responded with a four-for-11 shooting effort from three-point to finishin with 12 points.
Norris Cole scored a game-high 20 points, his 13th career 20-point effort, and handed out a career-high 10 assists. Cunningham, who spelled Pogue at center, went five-for-nine from the field with a pair of treys to finish with 13 points, the most he has had against a Division I opponent this year.
Pogue, who had been plagued by foul trouble during the non-conference schedule, score seven points and grabbed a career-high 16 rebounds, the most by a Viking in over three seasons.
Brown, playing inside as the power forward, scored eight points, grabbed 10 rebounds, including five offensive, made four steals and handed out three assists. He is now averaging 10.0 rebounds over his last three games and upped his Horizon League leading steal total to 42.
"That is how we are supposed to play ball," Waters said. "We had every piece clicking together and working as a team. When we play as a team, we are so much harder to defend because everybody on the court has the ability to hurt you."
The lineup change worked as the Vikings stormed out of the gates, scoring 13 straight points to open up a 15-2 lead at the 14:26 mark. The lead would grow to as many as 23 (34-11, 5:06) as the CSU pressure defense hounded the Penguin ball-handlers during the entire first half, forcing them to take off-balance shots off the dribble that led to nine-for-23 shooting (.391) and commit eight turnovers.
At the other end of the court, the CSU offense exhibited the most energy it had since early in the season. With the Vikings registering assists on 14 of their 17 first half baskets, led by Cole's nine assists, CSU ran its fast break and half court offenses to near-perfection, shooting .515 from the field (17-33), including a six-for-12 effort from three-point. With Pogue leading the way with a career-high 11 boards in the first half alone, CSU had a dominating 21-14 lead on the glass.
The only blemish on the first half performance for CSU was a woeful two-for-eight (.250) effort from the foul line, including misses on all six one-and-one or one shot fouls.
The only question to be answered in the second half was what the final score would be as Youngstown State could come no closer than 19 points in the final 20 minutes as CSU ran a patient offense, took advantage of break opportunities when it could and continued to play solid, half-court defense.
"We got out of the press late in the first half because we realized that they couldn't score consistently against our half-court defense," Waters said. "Once we got the big halftime lead, we kept in the half-court and challenged them to break it."
The Vikings shot .435 from the field for the game (27-62), including nine-for-24 from three-point (.375) while YSU could manage just .360 shooting (18-50), including nine-for-27 in the second half (.333).
CSU finished with a 44-31 rebounding edge, handed out 20 assists, made six steals and turned the ball over just 11 times.
"This was a good start. Now we have to continue it by playing well at home this week," Waters added.
The Vikings return home on Thursday (Jan. 7) for the first time in league play, hosting Loyola beginning at 7:00 p.m. in the Wolstein Center.
