Jan. 5, 2008
Final Stats
Contact: Greg Murphy
CLEVELAND, Ohio - An historic run continued for the Cleveland State women's basketball team, as they defeated UIC, 66-58, in Horizon League action Saturday at the Wolstein Center.
In beating the Flames, the Vikings have now won five straight games for the first time since the 1983-84 season, and the streak is currently tied for the fifth longest in school history. This is now the fourth time in school history the women's team has managed a five game win streak.
The win pushes Cleveland State's record to 8-5 (2-0 HL), while UIC falls to 5-9 (0-2 HL).
"It is a pleasure to coach this team and we are very proud of the fact that we have won five straight," head coach Kate Peterson Abiad said. "We have been building to get to this point, but we know that we still have a ways to go. We need to put 40 good minutes of basketball together.
"We have not been doing anything special or different over the last five games," Peterson Abiad continued. "We have just been bringing in players who fit our system and they are gaining a lot of confidence. We have a lot of weapons that can beat teams at different spots on the floor."
The Vikings began the first half slowly, as UIC opened an early lead which stretched to 16-8 by the 10:51 mark. Cleveland State was undeterred and stormed back on the strength of their defensive play and plenty of offense from Kailey Klein and Dominique Butler, who combined for 23 of the Vikings' 39 first half points.
Cleveland State took the lead for the first time since leading 2-0 early on, following a three pointer by Kailey Klein at the 7:54 mark, which made the score 21-18 at that point.
This lead change appeared to give tremendous confidence to the Vikings as they continued to grind it out, closing out the first half on an 18-7 tear from 7:54 on to head into the locker room leading the Flames by a 39-25 margin.
The Vikings kept up the pressure as they came out for the second half, running the score to a game-high lead of 19 points at the 17:25 mark with the score at 46-27 following a three pointer by CSU's Angel Roque.
UIC made their best efforts to make the game a contest at this point, going on a short 8-0 run to close the gap to 46-35 with 14:52 remaining following a jumper by Nicole Rinaldi. The Vikings followed with an 8-0 run of their own, and seemed to have all the answers for everything the Flames attempted offensively for the remainder of the contest.
"We have gotten ourselves on a good roll and feel good about how we have been playing," Peterson Abiad said."There is a different mentality here and we are going to keep working hard."
Kailey Klein continued her dominance on the offensive end of the floor as she finished with 21 points on 8-of-19 shooting (1-for-3 three pointers, 4-for-4 free throws) to lead all scorers. The sophomore guard also added five rebounds and three assists.
Also playing a significant role in the game for the Vikings were Dominique Butler, with 14 points on 6-for-10 shooting (1-for-1 free throws) with five steals and four rebounds, and Brittany Korth, who contributed 12 points on 5-for-13 shooting to go with her six rebounds and four assists.
Briana Hinkle, who scored 19 points on 8-for-17 shooting, led UIC in their losing effort.
The Vikings will head to Green Bay, Wisconsin for their next game on January 10, 2008, with game time at 8:00 p.m. CT.
