Dec. 30, 2003

Box Score

CLEVELAND - Cleveland State (4-6, 1-0 Horizon League) broke open a close game by holding Youngstown State (1-10, 0-1 HL) scoreless for nearly 10 minutes on its way to an 88-54 victory Tuesday night in the Horizon League opener for both schools. The outcome was nearly identical to last year's game in Cleveland in which the Vikings came out on top by an 81-44 margin. CSU has now defeated YSU three consecutive times and has won four of the five meetings since the Penguins joined the conference three years ago.

Trailing 32-31 with 2:21 left in the opening stanza, the Vikings scored the final five points of the half and then proceeded to rattle off 23 straight points out of the locker room before the Penguins finally got on the board at 11:38 mark of the second half. By the time the Vikings capped off their astounding 40-2 run, the score was 71-34 with 8:13 left to play.

"We played the full 40 minutes and received contributions from everyone tonight," CSU head coach Kate Peterson said. "In the second half we came out and stepped up our defense, while hitting our shots at the same time. Things just went really well for us during the run. The key now is to build on this and establish that we're not going to be a roller-coaster team."

CSU finished with its highest point total since an 89-64 victory over IPFW on Feb. 26, 2003, in addition to grabbing a season-high 50 rebounds to YSU's 34. The Vikings shot 46.6 percent (27-58) from the floor while limiting the Penguins to just 29.3 percent (17-58), the lowest total for a CSU opponent this year.

"We weathered their press in the first half and made good decisions," YSU head coach Tisha Hill pointed out. "But when we lost our poise in the second half it was like a shark smelling blood -- they went in for the kill."

Senior Shannon Sword (Miamisburg, Ohio/Miamisburg) hit for 15 of her game-high 23 points in the first half, the fifth time this season she has notched 20 or more points. She also led the team with eight rebounds.

Senior Ashley Schrock (Wauseon, Ohio/Wauseon) recorded 11 points, seven rebounds, five assists and four steals, while sophomore Erin Martin (Canfield, Ohio/Canfield) and freshman Keena Rembert (Kentwood, Mich./Kentwood) both finished with 11 points as all 13 players got in the scoring column.

YSU junior Cathy Hanek scored all of her team-best 14 points in the first half.

Cleveland State is in action again when the Vikings travel to Bowling Green for a 1:00 p.m. contest on Saturday, Jan. 3.