Feb. 21, 2009
Final Stats
Contact: Greg Murphy
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland State won for the ninth time in its last 11 games and inched closer to second place in the Horizon League with a 60-50 victory over Detroit on Saturday afternoon in the Wolstein Center.
Kailey Klein paced the Vikings with a game-high 24 points and five rebounds, while Shawnita Garland added 14 points, a career-high tying eight rebounds and four steals. Dominique Butler just missed a double-double with nine points and 10 rebounds as CSU held a 34-28 advantage on the glass.
CSU improved to 16-10 overall, equaling the Vikings regular season win total from last year and remained in third place in the Horizon League at 10-4. The 10 league wins are tied with last year's squad for the most in program history.
Combined with second place Butler's loss (75-65) at Valparaiso earlier today, the Vikings are now just one game behind the Bulldogs for second place in the league race.
In addition, the Vikings have also put together the second best two-year stretch in school history, winning 38 games between this season and last when CSU was 19-14. The school-record for most wins over two seasons is 42, set in 1982-83 (23 wins) and 1983-84 (19 wins).
"The coaching staff is always comparing this year's team to last year," head coach Kate Peterson Abiad said. "I see a lot more maturity in this group in that we recover quickly from losses and that we can still win if we have a poor offensive night or make some mistakes. I think the team has grown because of the experience we had last year and they are becoming more and more comfortable with each other.
"But we also have to keep a level-head about what we have in front of us. We have some tough match-ups coming up and we have to remain focused on what we need to do. The rest of the stuff will sort itself out."
Detroit fell to 9-17 overall and 5-10 in league action.
Stephaine Crosley opened the scoring with a three-pointer from the top of the key and Klein followed with a layup, giving CSU a quick 5-0 lead less than three minutes into the contest.
However, an 8-2 run by the Titans, capped with consecutive buckets from Sandi Brown, gave UDM its first lead of the contest (8-7) with 12:56 to play in the half.
But Klein followed with two straight baskets, starting a 14-2 CSU run over the next five minutes as the Vikings assumed their largest lead of the first half, 21-10, with 7:20 to play on Dominique Butler's layup.
A quick 9-3 spurt by Detroit brought the Titans back within four (23-19) with just over one minute to play in the half, but Klein's three-pointer, her third of the first half, with 37 seconds to play finished the scoring in the opening stanza and gave CSU a 26-19 advantage at the break.
Klein finished with 13 first half points, hitting 5-of-8 from the field, including 3-of-5 from long range.
UDM cut its deficit to as little as five points on three occasions in the second half, but each time, the Vikings had an answer.
The final time Detroit got within five points (40-35; 9:03), Stephaine Crosley answered with two free throws, Klein hit a jumper and Garland hit 1-of-2 free throws to push the Viking lead back to 10 points (45-35) with 7:46 to play.
CSU pushed the lead to as many as 14 on a Klein three-pointer with 2:40 left.
CSU hit 23-of-48 (.479) from the floor, including six-of-19 (.316) from three-point, holding UDM to 17-of-51 (.333) from the floor.
"Kailey had a calmness to her today and it looked like she knew today was her day," Peterson Abiad said. When she is confident, it makes everyone else on the team confident and it is great to have that type of player in the program."
The Vikings will return to action on Thursday, Feb. 26, when CSU begins a two-game trip in Chicago with an 8:00 p.m. CST contest at UIC. The Vikings will also play at Loyola on Saturday, Feb. 28, beginning at 2:00 p.m. CST.
