Jan. 22, 2011
Final Stats
By: Robert Ivory
CLEVELAND, Ohio- Senior Shawnita Garland led the Vikings with 13, but the Cleveland State Vikings could not buy a basket, as the Vikings dropped a 58-42 decision Saturday evening at the Wolstein Center.
" I felt that we came out sluggish, we turned the ball over everyway you can turn the ball over. It was just a mess," head coach Kate Peterson Abiad said. "I didn't think we played well defensively. Offensively, we could not hit anything. We shot way too many times from behind the three-point line and we were not attacking the basket. It just ended being a bad game all-around for us."
Cleveland State went just 1-19 beyond the arc against the Raiders.
"Tonight was just not our night from behind the arc," Peterson Abiad said. "We did not recognize that early enough. I even felt that the shots were pull-up jump shots, we would drive, then step back."
As a team, CSU shot just 25.4% on the night (16-63). Wright State did not fare any better (33.3%), as the 66 attempted field goals was the most the Vikings have surrendered this season.
Destinee Blue racked up a double-double collecting 11 rebounds and scoring ten.
The Vikings never looked comfortable in the first half, connecting on just a quarter of their shots (6 of 24) shots in the first half.
"When you are not hitting shots, you have to get easy baskets, either though layups or turnovers," Peterson Abiad said.
Cleveland State falls to 11-8 on the year and 4-4 in the Horizon League.
Janelle Adams gave CSU the early 3-0 lead, but was met by Maria Bennett's three of her own. After Adams hit her three, the Vikings would go 0-18 the rest of the night from beyond the arc.
The game was tied at three and five, but the Raiders used a 14-4 run over just under ten minutes to lead 19-9 at the 5:20 mark of the half.
In that time, Garland was the recipient of a Winton pass, as Garland's jumper brought CSU within four at 13-9 with 6:51 in the half.
Wright State's 6-0 run from that point helped them take a ten point-lead with five minutes remaining in the half.
"We took ourselves out of contention early becuase we turned the ball over so many times," Peterson Abiad said. "WE could not get anything going offensively, we could not get any flow."
A Janelle Adams free throw stopped the run, then Garland went to the line to shoot three, hitting all three to get CSU back within four with 4:30 left to play.
But then LaShawna Thomas and Maria Bennett would answer with consecutive baskets (Bennett's a three) and Wright State controlled the momentum throughout the half, leading 24- 13 at the three minute mark.
Freshman Kaila Montgomery saw significant minutes in the half as she contributed eight minutes and a bucket.
Wright State took enough shots (34) in the half to help them, as they hit just 11 (32.4%), but the biggest number difference was 15 turnovers by the Vikings, turning into ten WSU points.
The Raiders also led the battle on the boards, 23-26, but also won the offensive rebound battle, 11-5. Wright State collected another ten points from second chance points, as the Raiders led 29-19 at the half.
"We went into halftime thinking we have to come out of this, and being hopeful that we would. We just never came out of it in the second half," Peterson Abiad said.
Garland came out from the gate, drove and hit a jump shot to hopefully get the Vikes going, hitting her first two, and the Vikes, shots of the half.
Wright State continued to hit the shots in the second, running out to a 10-2 run over the first two and a half minutes, to extend their lead to 39-23.
Bennett knocked down her third tree of the game on a floater from the right side corner to make it 43-24 in favor of the Raiders.
Destinee Blue hit a jumper with 11:11 left in the game to make it 43-27, the first basket the Viking hit over a 7:15 span.
CSU could just hit their shots and even the bounces did not go their way, as the basketball seemed bounced everywhere but in for CSU.
Wright State betters their record to 11-7 on the year and 5-2 in league play. With the win, no team has won back-to-back games in the last ten games of the series, since Wright State won on February 2 and 20, 2006.
The Vikings next pack their bags and head on a three-game road trip stopping in Youngstown State (Jan. 29 at 1:05 p.m.), Green Bay (Feb. 3 at 8:00 p.m.), and Milwaukee (Feb. 5 at 3:00 p.m.
