Women’s Basketball Falls at Cleveland State, 76-67

Box score.

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Eastern Michigan University women’s basketball team came up short versus Cleveland State University, 76-67, Tuesday evening, Nov. 18, in non-conference action at the Wolstein Center. In a game that was plagued with a combined 47 personal fouls, the Vikings used a 17-6 run to open the second half and were able to fend off the Eagles to claim the nine-point victory.

Cleveland State improves it record to 1-1 on the young season, while the Eagles drop to 0-2.

The contest marked the return of a pair of northeast Ohio natives for the Eagles in head coach AnnMarie Gilbert (Elyria, Ohio) and sophomore guard Cassie Schrock (Wadsworth, Ohio-Wadsworth). Schrock had a solid return to lead the Eagles with a team-best 22 points and five rebounds. Junior Mary Lawson (Alexandria, Va.-West Potomac (Jacksonville College)) posted 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting from beyond the arc.

For CSU, Kailey Klein scored a game-high 23 points and in the process became the 20th player in school-history to record 1,000 career points. Senior Dominique Butler added 18 points and nine rebounds, while Jessica Roque tallied 11 points.

Eastern Michigan connected on just 39-percent (17-of-43) from the floors while being limited to just 20 rebounds. On the flipside, Cleveland State managed a 57-percent (27-of-47) clip shooting while hauling down 33 caroms on the night. With 47 fouls being whistled, EMU was 26-of-31 from the charity stripe while CSU made 20-of-27 shots.

On a cold and blustery night in downtown Cleveland, both sides opened the game with cold shooting as neither side able to connect on a bucket for the first 1:59 of the contest. Then all the sudden the shots began to fall, as the Vikings pulled out to an early 11-9 advantage via nine consecutive points from Klein with 15:55 left in the first period.

Eastern would take its first lead of the night at 12-11 but that was short lived as the Vikings would roll off 10 of the next 15 points to take a four point edge, 21-17, with 7:27 to go in the period. However, a quick 6-0 run capped by a Schrock put-back promptly put Eastern back up 23-21 with 6:01 showing.

The EMU led to would grow to as many as four points, 28-24, on the strength of five straight points from Tavelyn James (Detroit, Mich.-Mumford). But the waning moments on the half belonged to the Vikings, who closed on a 6-2 run as the teams headed into the locker room deadlocked at 30.

CSU’s Klein led all scorers in the frame with 15 points to surpass 1,000 points in her distinguished career. Schrock paced the Eagles with 10 points on the opening 20 minutes, as James and Lawson followed with nine points and six points, respectively. The host Vikings controlled the boards grabbing 20 rebounds to just 11 for the Eagles.

Following the intermission the Vikings came out firing, reclaiming the lead at 39-32 and the momentum forcing the Eagles to burn a timeout to stop the run. A free throw by Schrock and a trey by Lawson cut the deficit to three, 39-36, but Cleveland State kept pushing the tempo while cleaning the glass for the rebounds.

The Viking expanded the cushion to 11, 47-36, on a pair of Klein free throws with 13:13 to go on the contest. Eastern would chip away, cutting the margin to five points at 59-54 on four straight from Schrock at the 6:50 mark.

CSU would not be phased, pushing the advantaged back to 11, 71-60, on another runner in the lane by Klein. Eastern would never get any closer the rest of the way as the Vikings held on for the 76-67 victory.

Eastern Michigan returns to the friendly confines of the Convocation Center for the squad’s home opener Saturday, Nov. 22, versus Madonna University. Tip time is scheduled for 2 p.m. Tickets are available by calling the EMU Ticket Office at 734.487.2282.

Eastern Michigan Athletics

Related News

Next Event

Related Videos