Cleveland State Men’s basketball came out victorious with an 81-73 win against conference competitor, Youngstown State. The game took place on Saturday, Feb. 17 at Henry J Goodman Arena with 2397 in attendance.
Youngstown came into the game hot, leading the game with a 14-9 lead in the opening minutes of the first quarter. The Vikings responded with a 14-0 to give them a nine-point advantage over the Penguins halfway through the quarter. CSU closed the quarter with a dunk from Senior Tristian Enaruna, granting CSU momentum going into the next frame.
The Penguins slowly fought back throughout the second quarter, to bring the game to a 33-33 tie with under two minutes to go in the frame. Youngstown scored off of two possessions to give them a 37-33 advantage going into halftime as CSU fell behind.
Never fear, though. The Green and White caught up, and they caught up quick.
Coming into the second half, YSU doubled their lead in the first minutes of play. The Penguins led by as much as eight points with a score of 45-37. Cleveland State, in a span of 60 seconds, tied the game 45-45 with a 8-0 run.
The two teams were neck-and-neck until CSU went on yet another run to give snag a five-point advantage with a score of 65-60. Although there was push-back from the Penguins, the Vikings maintained their lead to bring them to a 81-73 victory.
Cleveland State shot 56 percent from the field in the second half. The game consisted of seven ties and six lead changes, which ultimately fell into CSU’s favor. The Vikings had three prominent contributors against the Penguins: Enaruna (31 points), Tae Williams (18 points), and Drew Lowder (10 points).
CSU men’s basketball is currently fifth in the Horizon League standings with an overall record of 16-11 (.593) and conference record of 9-7 (.563).