Feb. 26, 2011

Final Stats

Contact: Greg Murphy

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland State used a strong push down the stretch to rally from a 12 point deficit and earn a 76-71 win over Youngstown State in Horizon League action on Saturday afternoon in the Wolstein Center.

Trailing 63-51 with seven minutes to go, the Vikings outscored the Penguins, 25-8, to finish the game and win for the 10th time at home this season, the second most home wins in school history.

"I saw our energy really pick up down the stretch and we received some outstanding key individual plays," head coach Kate Peterson Abiad said. "I thought our intensity was much better and we started to make plays on both ends of the court."

The win improves the Vikings to 17-10 overall and moves CSU into a tie for third place in the Horizon League with Wright State at 10-6 after the Raiders fell at UIC today. The duo is just one-half game behind second place Butler (11-6), but also only one game ahead of fifth place UIC (9-7) heading into the final weekend of the season.

"This is a great position for us to be in heading into the final weekend of the season," Peterson Abiad said. "We know that we control our own destiny if we can continue to win, but we know it won't be easy. We have two tough games left and will have to come out with a lot of energy and intensity from the start of the week as we prepare for these games."

YSU fell to 4-23 overall and 2-14 in the league.

Shawnita Garland scored a team-best 25 points, hitting all nine of her free throws and 8-of-18 from the field. She added four rebounds, four assists and three steals, becoming the first player in school history to reach 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 300 assists and 250 steals in a career.

"Shawn has always been a great player for us, but she has really taken it to a new level over the last few weeks," Peterson Abiad said.

Shalonda Winton added 20 points, nine rebounds and four assists, while Honesty King tallied 13 points off the bench.

Both teams struggled from the field in the opening as a Winton three pointer at the 16:03 mark was the first field goal of the game. It gave the Vikings a 7-0 lead, thanks to four free throws by Destinee Blue earlier.

However, the Penguins rallied to take their first lead of the game, 15-14, with 8:24 to play in the half on a Brandi Brown basket. The Penguin lead would get as high as three points on three occasions from there, the final time coming on a three-pointer by Kenya Middlebrooks with 5:12 left that gave YSU a 26-23 lead.

Honesty King answered with a three pointer on the other end to tie the score, Winton followed with a jumper and King hit another three pointer from the corner with 48 seconds left to give the Vikings a 31-26 lead.

However, Middlebrooks knocked down a long jumper with 13 seconds left to slice the Penguin deficit to 31-28 at the half.

CSU's lead reached seven points (43-36) on a Winton layup with 15:25 to play, but that's when the Penguins got hot.

Brown converted a three point play and then hit two free throws to slice the Viking lead to 43-41 and three straight Penguin three pointers gave YSU a 52-43 lead with 12:23 left in the game, capping a 16-0 Penguin run as Winton split a pair of free throws on the other end to stop the spurt.

The Vikings battled back to within five points (54-49) on a Garland three point play with 10:42 to play, however, the Penguins answered with a 9-2 run that gave them their largest lead of the game, 63-51, with just over seven minutes to play.

However, King would score on a layup and Winton finished off a three point play with a free throw with just over six minutes to play to start a 15-1 run that gave CSU a 66-64 lead when Garland drained a 15 footer with 2:45 to play.

Brown answered on the other end to tie things at 66-66 with 2:23 left and it would stay that way until Garland came up with a steal and fastbreak layup with 58 seconds to play to put the Vikings ahead, 68-66.

After a stop on the defensive end, YSU was forced to foul and King drained two free throws for a 70-66 lead. Brown responded on the other end with a three point play to bring the Penguins back within one (70-69) with 25 seconds left, but Garland made all six of her free throws down the stretch to seal the win.

The Vikings shot .479 (23-48) from the field and hit 25-of-31 (.806) at the free throw line to offset a quiet night from three point (5-22; .227). YSU hit 26-of-58 (.448) from the field, including 7-of-23 from three point.

Both teams finished with 30 rebounds.

Brown led all scorers with 28 points, while Tieara Jones had 14 points and 13 rebounds for the Penguins.

The Vikings will conclude the regular season with two games at home next weekend, hosting Loyola on Thursday (March 3) at 7:00 p.m. and UIC on Saturday (March 5) at 2:00 p.m.