Nov. 16, 2009
Video has no source Url in width="425" height="344">
Contact: Brian McCann
• Purchase Tickets
• Group Ticket Information
• 2009-10 Basketball Promotions
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Jared Cunningham and D'Aundray Brown led four Vikings in double figures with 14 points each and CSU turned 30 Wilmington turnovers into 39 points as Cleveland State ran away from Wilmington, 99-74, in CSU's home opener on Monday afternoon in the Wolstein Center.
The win extended CSU's ongoing Wolstein Center winning streak to 12 games, giving the Vikings (1-1) the fourth longest home win streak in school history. Wilmington drops to 0-1.
"This was a good game for us because it allowed us to play a lot of our new guys and young guys and get them some minutes," CSU head coach Gary Waters said. "We attacked them defensively and forced them to make a lot of turnovers, but other than that, we are still giving up too many good shots and allowing them inside too easily.
"It is more of a rotation thing. Our new guys don't fully understand how we play defensively so consequently, we are out of place inside. That's why we will be better in January than we are now because we will understand our rotations better.
"We want to use today and our next two games this week to get us ready for the high level competition that we will see in Cancun next week. We want to be highly competitive theew and put ourselves into a good position," Waters added.
The Vikings never trailed in the contest, taking an 11-4 lead at the 16:26 mark. After Wilmington battled back to trail 25-20 with 6:25 left, CSU ran off 10 straight points over the next minute-and-a-half to lead, 35-20 with 5:02 left.
The lead would grow to as many as 19 in the first half before the teams went to the locker room with CSU leading, 51-35. A 9-3 run to open the second half gave CSU a 20-point advantage (60-40, 18:13) after which the Quakers would come no closer than 13 points the rest of the way.
Cunningham and Brown each went inside to lead CSU in scoring. Brown was seven-for-eight from the field while Cunningham was five-for-nine. Jeremy Montgomery added 13 points and four assists while Trevon Harmon scored 11 points.
The Viking defense keyed the offense all afternoon as CSU forced 30 turnovers in the contest, turning them into 22 steals and 39 points off turnovers. Norris Cole (7), Montgomery (5) and Harmon (4) each set career highs for steals.
The Vikings shot well all afternoon, going 33-for-56 from the field (.589), including a 16-for-25 effort in the first half (.640). The aggressiveness of the offense also showed as CSU went to the line 37 times, making 29 (.784). They were even better in the opening stanza, making 17 of 19 from the charity stripe (.895).
Field goal defense appears to be CSU's Achilles Heel this season as Wilmington shot .569 for the game (29-51). That high percentage did not carry over anywhere else as the Quakers were just two-for-six from three-point (.333) and missed 21 of its 35 free throw attempts (.400).
All 13 Vikings played and scored in the contest as CSU had a decisive 45-18 edge in bench points.
The Vikings remain at home for two more games this week, starting play in the Cancun Challenge when they host Florida A&M on Thursday (Nov. 19) and Sam Houston State on Saturday (Nov. 21) with each game beginning at 7:00 p.m. in the Wolstein Center.
