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Misc Vikings Vikings Archive Cleveland State 65, Wright State 46: Vikes Protect the House Stay Undefeated At Home
Written by Tom Mieskoski

Tom Mieskoski

Jeremy_Montgomery

A popular T-Shirt selling at  Cleveland State's team shop during games has the Under Armour logo with the words:  "Cleveland State Basketball Protect This House."

So far this season CSU has done just that as the Vikings remained undefeated at home this season with a 65-46 blowout victory over Wright State on Saturday afternoon at the Wolstein Center.

CSU are 12-0 at the Wolstein this season and have won 14 straight at home dating back to last season, which breaks the Wolstein record for most consecutive wins. The previous record was 13 straight from Dec. 2008 to Nov. 2009.

The last team to defeat CSU at home was Detroit last season (Feb. 25, 2010).

Most importantly, CSU (18-3, 7-2 Horizon League) are all alone in second-place in the Horizon League standings, a half-game behind first-place Valparaiso (15-5, 7-1), and a half-game ahead of Butler (14-6, 6-2). WSU drops to 13-8 and 6-3 in the Horizon.

Valpo host UW-Green Bay on Sunday and Butler host UW-Milwaukee.

"One of our team goals was to make sure that nobody comes into our house and wins," said Aaron Pogue, who dominated inside with 15 points and eight rebounds in 26 minutes. "We have a sign that says "Bring the Pain." In these last two games, we had a sense of urgency to stay undefeated at home."

The Vikings brought the pain as they came out with a defensive mindset and never let WSU's offense get going.

CSU's aggressive pressure defense held the Raiders to 11-for-41 (26.8 percent) from the field for the game.

"I think our guys came out this game pretty focused on the defensive end," said CSU coach Gary Waters who improves to 91-65 in five seasons at CSU, passing Rollie Massimino into third place on CSU's career wins list. "When your playing teams that execute as well as Wright State does at times, you have to be prepared on the defensive end. And I thought our guys with one day to prepare did an excellent job."

It was over very early as CSU jumped out to a 26-11 lead on a pair of free throws from Josh McCoy and extended it to 33-15 on Jeremy Montgomery's 3-pointer. CSU held a 33-20 lead at the half.

"Tonight it really came down to the first ten minutes of the game," said first-year WSU coach Billy Donlon. "We were not ready for (the pace they were playing at). We didn't execute on offense."

The second half was more of the same as CSU continued to dominate as a Trevon Harmon 3-pointer extended the lead to 42-26 with 14:30 remaining.

A pair of free throws from Norris Cole pushed the lead to 20 (59-39) with 4:22 remaining. After that it was on cruise control.

Montgomery, who was in a 10-for-30 slump in his past four games, led the Vikings with 17 points.

"Tonight it felt good, the release and everything," said Montgomery, who was 5-for-8 from the field. "I don't really focus on scoring points because on any given day anyone on this team can play well and tonight it was my day."

Cole nearly had a triple-double with 14 points, 10 rebounds and six assists.

Senior guard Vaughn Duggins was the only WSU player to reach double-figures with 14 points.

The Raiders played without senior forward Cooper Land (knee) and freshman forward Cole Darling (groin).

CSU's next game is Thursday at Illinois-Chicago.

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