March 16, 2011
Final Stats
Contact: Greg Murphy
FORT WAYNE, Ind. - Cleveland State senior Shawnita Garland just wants to keep playing basketball
Garland scored 27 points with seven assists, a season-high tying six assists and five rebounds to help the Vikings to their first postseason win in the NCAA era as the top-seeded Vikings earned a 73-62 win over No. 8 seeded IPFW in the first round of the Women's Basketball Invitational on Wednesday night in the Gates Sports Center.
The win improved the Vikings to 21-11 overall, while the Mastadons concluded their season at 20-11.
CSU advances to the quarterfinals of the WBI and will play fifth-seeded Chicago State, a 73-64 winner over fourth-seeded Eastern Illinois tonight. The game will be played on Saturday, March 19, in the Wolstein Center at a time to be determined.
Janelle Adams added 12 points and seven rebounds, while Takima Keane scored 11 points with a career-high and CSU season-high tying 10 assists. Shalonda Winton added 10 points and 11 rebounds.
The Vikings used a strong push over the final four minutes of the game, outscoring the Mastadons, 14-5, to turn a 59-57 lead into the 11 point win.
The first half was tight throughout, featuring eight ties and six lead changes. IPFW took the largest lead of the half, 32-25, with 1:39 to play, but the Vikings used a pair of layups from Janelle Adams and Keane to pull within 32-29 at the half.
The Vikings trailed by just three at the half thanks in large part to Garland who weaved and knifed her way through the Mastadon defense to the tune of 15 points, many coming on layups with drives and cuts to the basket.
IPFW extended its lead to six points (41-35) with 15:07 left in the game, but an 18-5 spurt by CSU over the next five minutes gave the Vikings a 53-46 lead with just under 10 minutes left as Shalonda Winton made a layup.
IPFW whittled the lead down to two on two more occasions, but the strong push by CSU sealed the win.
Garland's 27 points improved her season scoring total to 543 points, the sixth most in a season in school history. In addition, she broke the CSU career record for games played, playing her 128th contest today.
