Cleveland, OH-The Cleveland State men's basketball team suffered just its third defeat in conference play and its first home conference loss of the season, falling to Robert Morris 68-59 at the Wolstein Center. The road team won both matchups this season with the Vikings winning 80-69 in Pittsburgh on January 8 and the Colonials returning the favor Wednesday night.
RMU has won nine of its last ten games and improves to 11-5 in Horizon League play and 19-8 overall. Cleveland State is now 12-3 in league play and 18-8 overall. The Vikings remain in first place in the league standings.
Despite holding the lead for over half the contest, the Vikings struggled to stretch the lead throughout the game. RMU outscored Cleveland State 42-29 in the second half to emerge victorious. The Colonials won the battle on the boards 39-32 including a 16-9 edge on the offensive glass, leading to 13 second-chance points. Cleveland State finished just 2-for-16 from three-point range and committed 12 turnovers, two above their average in league games.
Dylan Arnett led the Vikings with 16 points in the contest to go along with eight rebounds. Arnett was 7-for-9 from the field.
Tahj Staveskie finished with 11 points and
Reece Robinson added 10. Staveskie finished with the lone two three-point field goals for the Vikings in the game.
The hosts got off to a fast start with Arnett and Staveskie hitting jump shots on back-to-back possessions to give Cleveland State the early 4-0 advantage. RMU responded with a quick 5-0 run into the first media timeout to take its first lead of the game at 7-6 with 16:06 remaining in the first half.
Cleveland State surged out of the media timeout as a 9-0 Viking run made it 15-7 CSU with 11:44 to go in the half. Staveskie knocked down a three to cap the run and put the Vikings ahead by eight.
The lead hovered between four and eight points over the next six minutes of play before another Viking run pushed the lead to double digits. Cleveland State reeled off six straight points with Arnett converting an and-one followed by a Staveskie three that made it 30-20 Cleveland State. The lead would be the Vikings' largest of the day.
RMU closed a half of runs with a 6-0 spurt of its own to cut the Cleveland State lead back to four at the break, 30-26.
The Colonials worked back to a tie in the opening four minutes of the second half and took the lead with 14:06 to play on a Ryan Prather Jr. three-pointer. RMU led 43-40 at that point.
The lead changed hands multiple times over the next eight minutes of play, with RMU holding the slight advantage at 55-52 with five minutes to play. A 5-0 run over the next 90 seconds widened the lead to eight with 3:29 to play, and an Armarion Dickerson alley-oop dunk with 1:36 left pushed the RMU lead to double digits for the first time, sealing the outcome.
Cleveland State returns to the Wolstein Center on Sunday for a 2:00 p.m. tip-off against Youngstown State. The game will be nationally televised on ESPNU and tickets are on sale now with pairs of two seats available for $16. Tickets can be purchased at csutickets.evenue.net.
