Jan. 29, 2011

Final Stats

Contact: Greg Murphy

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - Shalonda Winton scored a career-high 31 points and Destinee Blue added a career-high tying 20 points and Cleveland State used a strong second half to run past Youngstown State, 86-65, in Horizon League action at the Beeghly Center on Saturday afternoon.

The win improves the Vikings to 12-8 overall and allows CSU to close the first half of the league slate at 5-4, which will put the Vikings in either third or fourth place depending on the outcome of today's other league games.

YSU slips to 3-17 overall and 1-8 in the league.

The 86 points are a season high for the Vikings and the most since a 90-66 win at Green Bay in the Horizon League semifinals on March 14, 2008.

Winton, who did not score in double figures in any of her previous three games, obliterated her old career high of 19 points set twice during her career. She went 12-of-15 from the field with the 12 makes representing a career-high. She also hit her lone three pointer and 6-of-7 at the free throw line.

Although she did not score much over the last three games, Winton did make her mark on the boards, averaging 10.6 during the stretch and grabbing at least 10 rebounds in the last four games and six of the last seven coming in.

Winton did nothing to hurt those rebounding numbers today, grabbing nine rebounds to just miss her eighth double-double of the season.

"I am so happy for Shay because she is her own worst critic," head coach Kate Peterson Abiad said. "She did a great job of attacking the basket today and getting some nice, easy looks. Nobody works harder than her and it was nice to see her do what she did today."

Blue did finish with a double-double, her sixth of the year, grabbing a game-high 12 rebounds to go along with her 20 points.

"We wanted to get the ball down low today and we followed that game plan," Peterson Abiad said. "I thought we executed exactly how we wanted to and did a great job of finding open cutters to the basket as well. I also challenged them to win the rebounding battle today and thought we controlled the boards all game."

Shawnita Garland added 18 points, seven assists and four steals, while Takima Keane scored 12 points with four assists.

The Vikings shot a season-best .542 (32-59) from the floor, including 5-of-11 (.455) from three point, while also holding a commanding 42-25 advantage on the boards.

Leading 47-42 at halftime, the Vikings came out and blistered the Penguins to start the second half, scoring the first 11 points of the half to take a 58-42 lead less than four minutes into the second half en route to running away from YSU as the lead swelled to as many as 26 points.

The first half proved to be one of the most entertaining 20 minutes of basketball this season as the Vikings raced out to a 47-42 lead. Both teams shot well from the field with CSU hitting 18-of-34 (.529) and the Penguins going 14-of-26 (.538).

The Vikings were in an offensive flow throughout the first half, assisting on 14 of their 18 baskets, including several passes to open cutters for easy layups. CSU finished with 30 points in the paint in the opening half.

Brandi Brown gave the Penguins a quick 4-0 lead less than a minute in with two baskets, but eight straight points by CSU gave the Vikings an 8-4 advantage with 17:37 to play. The CSU lead was one (17-16) with 11:31 left in the half when a Keane three pointer started an 11-2 Viking run that pushed the advantage to 10 points (28-18) on a Winton jumper in the lane.

However, Kenya Middlebrooks answered with a three pointer on the other end that sparked an 11-3 YSU run that was capped by a Middlebrooks three pointer, her second of five in the first half.

Her fifth one of the half came at the buzzer that cut the CSU lead to 47-42 as the teams headed to the locker rooms.

The Vikings continue their three game road trip with two games in Wisconsin next week. CSU will play at Green Bay on Thursday (Feb. 3) at 8:00 p.m. EST and at Milwaukee on Saturday (Feb. 5) at 12:00 noon.