VIDEO: Highlights

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Cleveland State men's basketball team dropped a 66-43 contest to Horizon League leading Valparaiso on Tuesday night at Quicken Loans Arena.

Rob Edwards paced the Vikings with 11 points and four rebounds, while Derek Sloan finished with seven points, two rebounds and a steal in his first career start. Sloan was filling in for Jibri Blount who missed the game with an ankle injury.

Edwards made his 24th start of the season, the sixth most by a freshman in school history

The Vikings finished 6-of-13 from three-point, the 110th straight game that CSU hit at least three three-pointers in a game.

Demonte Flannigan added six points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals, while Tim Hasbargen scored five points. Kenny Carpenter added six points, five rebounds and two assists.

Alec Peters led the Crusaders with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Tevonn Walker scored 13 points, while Vashil Fernandez blocked six shots.

"I thought we had opportunities to score, especially in the first half to keep it close, but we didn't convert. We played well enough on defense in the first half to be closer than 12 points, but when you don't hit shots it's difficult to stay in games."

Valpo led 29-17 and pushed the lead to 14 points on a Walker layup to open the second half scoring. A three-pointer from Andre Yates closed the deficit to 10 points (33-23) with 16 minutes left, but a 15-2 run over the next six minutes allowed Valparaiso to extend the lead to 48-25.

The Vikings return to action on Saturday (Feb. 20) when CSU travels to Milwaukee for a 4:00 pm ET contest.