Cleveland State's 89-42 rout of LaRoche College Monday won’t ever be considered particularly memorable for the Vikings, but it was a rather significant day for head coach Gary Waters.
Waters earned his 143rd win at CSU, moving him past Kevin Mackey to sit at No. 2 on the Vikings’ all-time coaching list. He now only trails Ray Dieringer, who won 149 games as coach of the Vikings from 1969-83.
"He was a great coach. He started this whole success thing of Cleveland State [basketball] during the 80's. It's a honor to be in the same window with him," Waters said on passing Mackey. "It's predicated not on me, but the players. If you have good players you have success. We had that the last six years."
Sophomore forward Anton Grady led four Vikings in double-figures with 19. Sophomore guard Trey Lewis contributed 17, while Bryn Forbes added 16 and Sebastian Douglas 10 for the Vikings who improved to 7-6.
Senior forward David Jackson and Lionel Perkins led LaRoche with nine points each
"Sometimes you need a breather like this to get back on track," said Waters.
It was only fitting that CSU's defense played a key role in the victory.
The 42 points given up by CSU were the lowest point total allowed in nearly five years when they held Notre Dame College to 40 points on Dec. 27, 2008..
LaRoche (6-4) shot 33.9 percent from the floor. CSU's aggressive man-to-man defense caused 18 turnovers that led to several easy layups and dunks in transition for the Vikings who held advantages in points off turnovers (28-6) and fast break points (27-2).
CSU also committed a season-low eight fouls.
"I thought we did a much better job of staying in front of the guys without fouling them," said Waters.
The Vikings scored the first nine points and held a 28-2 lead midway through the first half and never looked back.
LaRoche started the game off 1-for-13 with five turnovers. They didn't make their second field goal until 10:11 left in the first half.
CSU shot 56.3 percent in the opening half and took a 44-15 lead at the break.
Lewis paced the Vikings in the first half with 11 points, while Grady and Forbes added 10 each.
It was a total team effort with 11 Vikings scoring in the game. CSU shot 59.4 percent from the floor and dished out 26 assists on their 38 field goals.
"That's something we put a lot of emphasize on," said Waters. "We got to do a better job of sharing the basketball. We have a lot of scorers and if we just share the basketball good things happen."
CSU dominated the boards (40-26) and held a 62-24 edge in the paint.
The Vikings travels to Kent State on Saturday for their final non-conference game