Women’s basketball taking the league by storm

Including two forfeit wins, Cleveland State women’s basketball begins the young season 8-0

The Cleveland State University women’s basketball team started off the year with six home games and swept their homestand and now stand at 8-0. Let’s take a look at how it was done.

In the home opener, the Vikings soundly defeated ETSU by a final score of 81-54. Sophomore guard Destiny Leo was the team’s leading scorer with 24 points. This included five made three-pointers and 7/7 makes from the charity stripe. The Vikings pulled away in the second half, out-scoring ETSU 49-25 and holding them to only three made field goals in the fourth quarter.

In the second game, the Vikings hosted St. Bonaventure in what was a defensive struggle. 38 three-pointers were attempted in the contest and only a combined six found the bottom of the net. Despite the off-shooting day for both teams, the Vikings could clamp up on defense with an exceptional effort from redshirt senior Nadia Dumas who recorded four blocks.

Cleveland State would then host Quincy. The Vikings had five players in double-digit scoring on the way to a 40 point victory. Leo dropped 30 points in the win in addition to Dumas adding a double-double. The Vikings would then get a forfeit victory in what was the first conference game against IUPUI.

So with a 4-0 record, the Vikings would host UIC in the second conference game of the season. Let me ask a question here, if a team has 30 turnovers does anyone think the team would win? Well, that is what the Vikings did. Despite a horrible number of turnovers, the team pulled together and earned their fifth straight win.

Senior guard Isabella Geraci added a spark off the bench, scoring 16 points. Finally, the Vikings hosted LIU. Cleveland State outscored LIU 27-12 in the fourth quarter on the way to an 87-65 victory. Freshman forward Amele Ngwafang added 20 points off the bench. 

Looking forward, the 6-0 Vikings played two games away from the friendly confines of the Wolstein Center. The road trip started at NKU in a 63-52 win over the Norse. Leo put up a career-high 31 points, scoring a little less than half of the entire Vikings offense. Senior guard Barbara Zieniewska put up her second straight game with double-digit rebounds.

It has been an all-around effort for the women’s basketball team as they try to get revenge after losing to Wright State, who forfeited the game on Dec. 5, in the semifinals last season. The team is showing no mercy for their opponents as they have remained a massive threat to the basketball world this season.

The Vikings will play Akron next on Dec. 12 before coming home for two games on Dec. 18 and Dec. 21 against Hofstra and Loyola.