by It was a cold winter Wednesday in Cleveland as the Cleveland State Vikings(14-6) lined up against the Detroit Mercy(6-14) to face off at the Wolstein Center. Both teams were ready for action. With the Mercy coming into Cleveland on a four-game losing streak and off of a six-point loss to the Oakland Golden Grizzlies. The Mercy were looking to redeem themselves and build better habits by capturing a win on the road. While the Vikings were battling to defend home court, going in on a ten-game win streak and an eleven-point win over the IU Indianapolis Jaguars. The Vikings were looking to build their win streak while the Detroit Mercy were looking to get some traction going.
Both teams came out with conviction in the first half, neither team willing to give an inch. Both opting to play mainly man to man- switch all defense. The Vikings and the Mercy were extremely scrappy, diving for loose balls, playing hard-nosed defense. The game started to slip away in favor of the Mercy and adjustments had to be made for the Vikings as they went down by nine points. The Vikings opted to press at half court and even sometimes full court as they realized the game was getting away from them. It was a good way to pressure the Mercy and not let them get their offense set up. It worked, slightly, as they cut a nine point lead down to five at the end of the half.
On the offensive side there was really no dominant player out there in the first half. Both teams were sharing the ball evenly, playing a team game. Tevin Smith for the Vikings led the charge with 10 points, scoring from all over the floor. Orlando Lovejoy led the charge in scoring for the Mercy with 8 points. Not entirely surprising that the two leading scorers for their respective teams were in the forefront of the offense. The end of half score was 34-29 in favor of the Mercy. The Vikings didn’t have a large way to climb but they had to find a way back into the game.
The second half went back to how the game initially started, with both teams going 1 versus 1 defense. The Vikings threw a few traps in there with their half court sets and it worked to perfection as they cut that lead down to tie the game half way through the second half. CSU went with more of a physical approach and the Mercy, at one point seemed like they were wishing for some.
A few takeaways from this game for me:
CSU’s defense can turn it on at any point in the contest and in this particular matchup, the Mercy had no answer for it
Tevin Smith is an exceptional player, at 6’4, he has all the tools to be a great guard at this level. He made the right reads, allowing his teammates to flourish and scored almost at will.
CSU’s pace change on both sides of the ball is a problem, in a good way for them.
The Mercy have multiple threats but just simply were not able to put anything together tonight.
The 2-man connection between Lovejoy and Ryan Kalambay worked but was not enough to compete against CSU’s stifling defense.
With those key takeaways, I’d like to say that it was a great game indeed. Both teams gave it their all but the defensive pressure in the second half from the Vikings was too much for the Mercy to handle. Tevin Smith led the way with 23 points and his running mate Je’Shawn Stevenson poured in 13 points as well. They had some great effort from their teammates, filling the point sheet and locking up on the other end, helping propel the team to victory and an eleven-game winning streak. The Mercy on the other hand, extend their losing streak to five and look to once again get a W in their next game. Both teams look to move on to their next opponent and continue this long season.
