Feb. 27, 2010
Final Stats
Contact: Greg Murphy
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Kailey Klein scored 25 points with 14 rebounds, her 14th career double-double, and Cleveland State raced out to an early lead to defeat Wright State, 63-52, on Senior Day on Saturday evening in the Wolstein Center.
The win, CSU's third straight overall, improved the Vikings to 15-12 overall, while also allowing CSU to take over sole possession of fourth place in the Horizon League at 10-6, after UIC lost to Loyola this evening.
WSU fell to 10-17 overall and 6-11 in the league.
"This was a great weekend for us as we were able to win two games against teams that beat us earlier in the year," head coach Kate Peterson Abiad said. "I think we are starting to show signs of peaking as a team at the right time and hopefully we can carry this momentum into the final weekend of the regular season and the league tournament.
"I feel that we are preparing much better in practice and executing well in games and that is translating into success. When we played at Wright State, their pressure hurt us a lot, but today, we did a much better job from the start of driving into the gaps and finding open players for shots. When we started hitting those shots, I think it deflated some of that pressure and energy they had."
The Vikings honored Klein, as well as fellow seniors Stephaine Crosley, Angel Roque and Jessica Roque in a pre-game ceremony as the quartet was playing the final regular season game at home.
Together, the quartet has been part of 61 victories, the second most by a class in school history.
"I tell a story before each game and the one on Senior Day is always the toughest one," Peterson Abiad said. "We have relied so much on them over the last four years and I don't think there is another group in program history who have had a hand in more wins as these four have been playing big minutes since they were freshmen.
"The good thing for me is that I still get to coach them for a few more weeks."
Crosley was the only other Viking to reach double digits with 12, while Angel Roque scored seven. Shawnita Garland chipped in eight points, nine rebounds and five steals.
A strong start by Klein helped the Vikings jump out to a 21-6 lead 11 minutes into the game. Klein scored CSU's first bucket of the game and nine of CSU's first 21 points.
WSU cut the lead to 10 (25-15; 3:45), but a 7-3 spurt by the Vikings extended the lead to 32-18 at the half.
The lead swelled to as many as 19 points on three occasions in the second half, but a Raider run cut their deficit to eight (54-46) with 5:59 left in the game on a Maria Bennett three-pointer.
However, Angel Roque answered with a three-pointer on the other end and Janelle Adams hit a jumper to push the lead back to 13 and WSU never threatened the rest of the way as the seniors left the court with 19 seconds left.
CSU controlled the glass, 38-21, including 17 on the offensive end which led to 18 second chance points.
The Vikings also had 13 steals, forcing 20 Raider turnovers.
Erica Richardson led WSU with 14 points, while Molly Fox added 11.
The Vikings close the regular season with a pair of contests in Wisconsin next weekend, beginning with an 8:00 p.m. EST contest in Milwaukee on Thursday (March 4). CSU then heads to Green Bay for a 3:00 p.m. EST game on Saturday (March 6).
