Written by Tom Mieskoski

Tom Mieskoski

Anthony_Wells_mugTrey_Harmon_mugJunior guard Trevon Harmon and sophomore point guard Anthony Wells are the latest Cleveland State Vikings to be sidelined with injuries.

Harmon, a 6-foot-1 junior guard, hyperextended his knee in Saturday's closed-door scrimmage versus Buffalo at Erie, Pa. He's questionable for this weekend's World Vision Classic Tournament at the Wolstein Center from Nov. 12-15.

"Trey got hurt in one of the extra quarters - sixth and final quarter against Buffalo," CSU men's basketball coach Gary Waters said after CSU's 68-39 exhibition victory over Baldwin-Wallace on Monday. "We don't think it's serious. We just got to give him some time (to rest). He won't practice until Friday."

Wells, a 6-foot-1 sophomore point guard from Shaker Heights, suffered a meniscus tear in his knee during practice. He's out 3-4 weeks.

"Anthony had operation on Friday," said Waters. "It wasn't a complete tear and he had a scope done not surgery. (With the scope) some people have come back in two weeks.

"The Vikings are already short-handed with injuries to freshmen point guard Sebastian Douglas (knee), who's out for the season, and senior forward D'Aundray Brown (finger), who's out until mid-December.

Point guard shuffle: With Wells, who was expected to back-up Norris Cole at point guard, sidelined, Waters had to switch things up at point guard.

"I had to play Norris longer then I wanted to. I had to switch Jeremy Montgomery over there, and now I don't have Trey, another guard. It's going to be a challenge," said Waters. "It means Josh McCoy and Charlie Woods will receive more playing time."

"This weekend will take its effect if we don't have Trey. We might have to go bigger."

Woods starts: Woods, who replaced Harmon in the starting lineup against BW, stepped up contributing 10 points and nine rebounds in 26 minutes.

"It felt good," said Woods about getting the start. "All of the hard work during the summer (finally) paid off (tonight)." 

Bench steps up: The Vikings received a strong performances off the bench against BW from McCoy (eight points and five rebounds) and freshmen forward Devon Long (10 points). At one point in the second half, Long scored eight straight points for the Vikings.

"I see the progress (of the younger players) every day in practice," said Cole, who led the Vikings with 14 points in the exhibition game. "The younger players are stepping up and we are going to have to depend on them. They're working hard trying to learn (the system) and are getting better (each and every day)." 

Needs more practice: Waters said there are three areas that CSU still needs to work on: "free throws, rebounding and don't turn the ball over."

Against BW, CSU shot 5-for-14 (35.7 percent) from the free throw line. They were outrebounded, 32-29, including 13-6 on the offensive glass, and they committed 16 turnovers. 

Signing day: Wednesday marks the beginning of the early signing period, which is from Nov. 10-17.

CSU is expected to sign five players to national letters of intent. They are Charles Lee (5-8, PG) of Huntington Prep (WV), Anton Grady (6-8, PF) of Cleveland Central Catholic, Tre' Brown (6-5, WG) of Warren G. Harding, Marlin Mason (6-6, PF) of Detroit Cass Tech (MI), and Ike Nwamu (6-2, SG) of Westchester Country Day (NC).

The CSU women are expected to sign three. They are Kiersten Green (5-7, G) of Manheim Township (PA), Tess Zufall (5-6, PG) of Greensburg Central Catholic (PA), and Imani Gordon (6-0, G) of Akron Firestone.