CLEVELAND- Ready or not, the Cleveland State men's basketball team is heading into Horizon League play starting with a pair of road games this week.
The Vikings, who saw their 3-game win streak snapped with a pair of losses in Cancun, Mexico and followed that with a 69-54 loss at home to Wichita State, play at 9 p.m. Thursday at Wright State in a game telecast by ESPNU from Fairborn, Ohio.
CSU, 3-4 with a 3-game losing string, then travels north on Interstate-75 to play at 1 p.m. Saturday at the University of Detroit.
CSU coach Garty Waters knows that road trip will be difficult.
"The next couple of games are going to be tough," admitted Waters. "I don't think we are ready for them yet and both of those teams are playhing well right now."
The last of the three consecutive losses came at home against the Shockers on a Saturday afternoon at the Wolstein Center when the basket must have seemed like the size of the eye of a needle for Vikings shooters. The loss also ended a 14-game home winning streak for the Vikings, whose next home game will be Dec. 12 at nearby Woodling Gym.
Woodling Gym, on the north side of the CSU campus, was home of Viking basketball until the Wolstein Center, then the Convovation Center, opened in 1991.
Trailing Wichita State, 38-24 at intermission, the Vikings, who were paced by Trevon Harmon, who had a career-best 23 points and another career-best 16 from Aaron Pogue, were unable to get a field goal for nearly 12 minutes of the second half. That allowed the Shockers to open a lead that grew to as many as 25 points before the Vikings found the hoop and cut into the big Shocker advantage.
CSU was 16-62 (.258) from the field while going 17-19 (.895) from the line.
After topping both Florida A&M and Sam Houston State at home in Cancun Challenge games, the Vikings went south to Cancun for third and fourth round games. They lost twice, falling to both Kentucky and Virginia.
In the Vikings' first-ever meeting with the Wildcats. Kentucky grabbed a 73-49 win after Cleveland State stayed close at imtermission with the Wildcats holding a 35-27 edge. D'Aundray Brown and Jeremy Montgomery each had 10 points to lead the Vikings.
The next evening, the Vikings were on the short end against the Cavaliers, dropping a 76-65 decision after holding a 39-29 lead early in the second half.
Montgomery led CSU against Virgina with 14 points while Pugue added 13 and Norris Cole another 12 for the Vikings.
Comments