Cleveland State heads off to Chicago for two games this weekend after grabbing the top spot in the Horizon League men's basketball race with a 67-47 win over Youngstown State.
The Vikings got even for an earlier loss this season to the Penguins with a 14-point, 11-rebound night from freshman Anton Grady a before a sold out crowd of 6,313 on Saturday at YSU's Beeghley Center.
The Vikings, who hold a 1/2 game lead over Valparaiso, take a 8-2 league mark to the Windy City where CSU will play Friday at Loyola and Sunday afternoon at Illinois-Chicago. The Crusaders, who split games on its Wisconsin swing, losing at Green Bay but slipping by Milwaukee, enter the week 8-3 in the HL that includes a 72-66 decision over CSU on Jan. 15.
The Vikings will host a Feb. 9 visit from Valparaiso at the Wolstein Center, which kicks off a 2-game home stand that includes a 11 a.m. game on Feb. 11 with Butler, which will be telecast on ESPN/ESPN2.
To get to the top spot, the Vikings had their way with the Penguins on Saturday night at the Beeghley Center after falling by a 73-67 count on New Year's Eve, giving CSU its one and only home loss this season.
Winning for the ninth time in 11 true road games this season, the Vikings had six players with at least eight points with Grady joined in the double digit scoring area by Trey Harmon, who scored 10 and added five boards.
They were followed by Jeremy Montgomery who had nine points and four assists, D'Aundray Brown, who added nine points with three rebounds and six steals. Aaron Pogue had eight points and rebounds in just 18 minutes while Charlie Lee matched Pogue's eight points and added a trio of assists.
This one was determined by a pair of strong runs by the Vikings, who used a 16-3 run to move out from a 9-7 deficit and added another 16-0 run to take a commanding 41-19 edge at intermission.
The Vikings, who were cheered on by the school's Viking Voyage fans, also controlled the boards, holding a 42-31 advantage on the Penguins, who fell to 6-4 in the HL and dropped just their second home game in nine tries.
Youngstown State had 11 points from Allen Blake while Damian Eargle and Kendrick Perry each had 10 in the loss.
The trip to Chicago will see the Vikings facing a couple of teams that have hand their share of trouble this season, with UIC 2-9 in league play and Loyola in the basement with a 0-11 record.
The first time around at the Wolstein Center, the Vikings defeated UIC, 73-56 behind 14 points from Montgomery and 13 each from Brown, Lee and Grady.
Two days later the Vikings took a 69-48 decision from the Ramblers with Harmon scoring 20 on 6-of-7 from behind the 3-point line and Tim Kamczyc adding 11 points and a game-high nine rebounds.
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