Cleveland State kept their chances of hosting the Horizon League Tournament alive with a 81-69 victory over Detroit on Thursday night at the Wolstein Center.

With the win, CSU improves to 17-3 and 6-2 in the Horizon League.

The Vikings are tied for second-place with Wright State (13-7, 6-2 Horizon League), who defeated Youngstown State, 66-62, on Thursday, both trail first-place Valparaiso (14-5, 6-1) by a 1/2 game.

Butler (13-6, 5-2) could join both CSU and WSU in second-place with a win over UW-Green Bay on Friday. Valpo host UW-Milwaukee on Friday.

CSU was led by Trevon Harmon with 22 points, 18 of them coming in the first half as the Vikings took a 39-32 lead at the half.

It was Norris Cole who carried CSU's offense in the second half, scoring 11 of his 18 points in the final 20 minutes. Cole also had a career-high tying 11 assists for his fifth career double-double.

"Norris took over the game (in the second half)," said Waters. "When you have a guard who can take over (the game) that's how you win those kind of games."

Detroit got 16 a piece from junior center Eli Holman and junior forward Nick Minnerath.

After five ties and eight lead changes, CSU finally took the game over late in the second half.

With Detroit leading 60-59, CSU went on a 9-0 run to take a 68-60 lead on a lay-up by Tim Kamczyc and extended it to 74-61 on Kamczyc's 3-pointer with 3:03 remaining.

Kamczyc finished with 10 points.

CSU would seal the game at the free throw line, confidently making 7-of-8 free throws in the final two minutes to preserve the victory.

Free throws played a key role in the game as CSU made 20-of-30 (66.7 percent) from the line in the second half, while Detroit went 7-of-16 (43.8 percent).

"Down the stretch you got to make your free throws," said Detroit coach Ray McCallum. "That's such an emotional let down when you don't come through (at the line). CSU did a nice job of closing it out on the line."

CSU had to overcome Detroit's advantages in rebounding (39-27), points in the paint (40-30), second chance points (26-12) and fast break points (12-4).

The Vikings overcame them by doing what they do best, which is causing turnovers. CSU's pressure defense caused Detroit to turn the ball over 19 times, which led to a 27-16 advantage in points off turnovers for the Vikings.

"We turned them over 19 times," said Waters. "When you turn them over 19 times, that's us getting back to Cleveland State basketball."

The Vikings also got a spark from their bench. After being outscored, 46-4, in their three previous games, CSU's bench came through with 23 points and 14 rebounds.

"Our bench really came through today," said Waters. "They needed (a game like this) to start feeling good for themselves."

The bench got eight points a piece from sophomore forward Charlie Woods and sophomore guard Josh McCoy. Junior center Joe Latas added five points and four rebounds.

"Coach told us we needed to step up," said McCoy. "And I think we took it amongst ourselves to get better in practice. So we came out with energy first on the defensive end and let the offense take care of itself."

WSU visits the Wolstein Center Saturday at 2 p.m. The game will be televised by SportsTime Ohio as part of the Horizon League's TV Game of the Week package.

The Cleveland State men's and women's basketball teams will host two doubleheaders this week at the Wolstein Center.

Both teams will face Detroit tonight (women, 5 p.m.; men, 7:30) and Wright State on Saturday (men, 2 p.m.; women, 4).

The CSU men (16-3, 5-2 Horizon League) need to win both games this week against the Titans (10-9, 4-3) and the Raiders (12-7, 5-2) to stay in the race to host the Horizon League Tournament.

Right now, CSU is in a three-way tie for second-place with Wright State and Butler, all are 5-2 in the conference - a game behind first-place Valparaiso (14-5, 6-1).

"We are right in the mix," said CSU men's basketball coach Gary Waters. "This weekend is a very important weekend for us. Because if we lose this weekend it now puts us out of the picture for some degree. That's why you have to take care of your home situation.

"So this is a tough series for us. We have to someway send out a message in these two games that we are in this picture to play."

CSU has won 12 straight at the Wolstein Center, but the last team to defeat the Vikings at home were the Titans (65-54) on Feb. 25, 2010.

The Vikings have won six of the past nine meetings against the Titans, but Detroit won both games last year. The Titans dominated the Vikings inside last year with their size.

"They (Detroit) are physically dominating," said Waters. "This is probably the most athletic and most physically dominating team in our conference."

Detroit is led by their big three. They are 6-1 freshman guard Ray McCallum (15.2 points, 4.3 assists), 6-6 junior guard Chase Simon (12.6 points) and 6-10 junior center/forward Eli Holman (11.4 points, 10.4 rebounds). A fourth Titan, Jason Calliste, averages 10.9 points per game and ranks ninth in the Horizon in 3-point field goal percentage (39.8).

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The Cleveland State men's basketball team ran into a buzzsaw last week in Indiana - losing both road games at Butler (79-56) and Valparaiso (64-58).

"When you have had two defeats like we had, you want to be back at it so you can regroup yourselves," said CSU men's basketball coach Gary Waters. "But for us, I think it's good [to have the weekend game] because in the Valpo game, I thought Norris (Cole) was tired. And he even told me that I don't have any legs."

In CSU's two losses last week, the Vikings turned the ball over an uncharacteristic 34 times (18 Butler, 15 Valpo), were outscored 38-2 (19-0 Butler, 19-2 Valpo) in bench points and committed 42 fouls (21 in each game).

"These were two tough games," Waters said. "The first game was just a tough, tough game for our team. We did not know the level of intensity that they were going to bring to that game. They came in with a large sense of urgency and you had to match that. We were not prepared to match that sense of urgency.

"In the Valpo game we missed a lot of lay-ups and we had a bad shot selection."

Entering tonight's game at Youngstown State, CSU (15-3, 4-2 Horizon League) are tied for third with Detroit and Wright State, a game behind first-place teams Butler and Valpo, who are both 5-1 in the Horizon League.

The Vikes will try to right the ship against a YSU team that has been a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde type of team this season with two different split personalities.

The Penguins (7-9, 1-5) nearly pulled-off a major upset at Butler this past Sunday - They had an eight point lead with 12 minutes to go, but the Bulldogs went on a 16-2 run to take the lead.

Then there is the YSU team that has lost by 30 at Robert Morris, by 13 at Kent State, and by 30 at home against Loyola-Chicago - all teams CSU have beaten.

So which team will CSU face on Saturday?

"They will be up for this game," said Waters. "It reminds me of the game two years ago when we lost there with our team that went to the NCAAs. If (YSU) could win this game it's the biggest game of their lives.

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The common theme at Gary Waters weekly media gathering on Tuesday was that both coach Waters and his players are tired of going to Butler for the Horizon League Tournament every year.

"I have been here four years and every year we have been to Butler (for the Horizon League Tournament)," said Waters. "We got to stop that Butler Invitational."

"I hate losing to Butler," said junior guard Trevon Harmon. "We are trying to host the tournament here - that is one of our team goals. We are differently going down there to make a statement. Even though we are having success and getting all these wins some people still don't respect us."

"They're not the only mid-level elite team now (in the Horizon League) - that's the one statement I want to go down there and make," said junior guard Jeremy Montgomery.

CSU (15-1, 4-0 Horizon League) have a golden opportunity to get a leg up on their archrival Butler (10-5, 2-1) if they can steal a victory at Hinkle Fieldhouse tonight.

Waters says don't expect to see the same Butler team that was blown out at UW-Milwaukee, 76-52, on Monday night.

"This team will be totally different (on Friday)," he said. "They will be committed to doing what they need to do to beat us."

Winning on Butler's home court won't be easy. CSU is 2-16 all-time at historic Hinkle Fieldhouse. CSU's only wins at Hinkle came during the 2008-09 season when CSU won the Horizon League Championship game, and during the 2004-05 season when Mike Garland was the head coach.

The Bulldogs are 5-1 at home this season and 30-2 at Hinkle over the past two seasons. They have also won 12 straight at home against Horizon League foes.

Vikes on ESPNU: ESPNU will televise tonight's CSU-Butler showdown starting at 7 p.m. Jim Barbar and Dave Kaplan will provide the commentary.

Waters keys to victory: Here are Waters three keys to beating the Bulldogs: First, take away either Shelvin Mack or Matt Howard. "They have two main guys (Shelvin Mack and Matt Howard). If you take one of those guys away it really helps (your chances of winning)," he said.

Second, CSU needs to stop Butler from getting into transition and scoring easy buckets and CSU has to make it a half-court game.

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