Tonight, the Bearcats (1-0) welcome in the Cleveland State Vikings (1-1) to Fifth Third Arena as the Bearcats are looking to make it two in a row to kick off the 2022-2023 season following a huge 98-55 victory over DII foe Chaminade on Monday night. The Vikings were predicted to finish 7th in the Horizon League following a huge 2021-2022 season where they are coming off a Horizon League Championship and a run in the NIT. This year’s Vikings team looks a little different from last season to say the least as they are only returning five players from championship team as they have nine new faces heading into the 2022-2023 season. The Vikings, however, are coming off a 72-68 loss to division two foe Notre Dame College earlier this week.
Something to keep an eye on ahead of the Bearcats matchup was they would look to be without John Newman for tonight’s game against due to an undisclosed injury, freshman center Sage Tolentino was also not participating in warmups and looked to be in street clothes ahead of this one as well for the second straight game.
The Vikings would strike first after Tristan Enuruna would get to the rim and look to get downhill early, but the Bearcats would respond with a huge steal by Mika Adams-Woods in the full court press that would lead to a David DeJulius floater to get the Bearcats on the board. The Bearcats would look to get Landers Nolley involved early after getting to his spots early and scoring four straight for the Bearcats and Nolley started to see a double team early by the Vikings. The Vikings were looking to crash the boards early as we mentioned on the Bearcat Tip-Off Talk Podcast ahead of this contest, that is something that the Bearcats will have to attack, control here at Fifth Third Arena and that would be the battle on the glass as the Vikings were starting to get forward Tristan Enaruna involved early as he would score four of the Vikings first eight points.
The Bearcats would bring some pressure and force a Vikings turnover as Nolley would force a steal and take it out in the open court where he would drive to the rim and find Adams-Woods in the corner as he would then eventually kick it out to a wide-open DeJulius who would knock down the huge three to swing the momentum back to the Bearcats. The Bearcats would then get consecutive stops on defense as Jeremiah Davenport would knock down another triple to give the Bearcats a 22-15 lead over the Vikings with eight minutes remaining in the first half.
The Bearcats were starting to settle in and find ways to create some offense as they started to share the ball around which would lead to a wide open three from Jarrett Hensley in the corner. The Bearcats knew they’d have to get physical and aggressive inside and it started with Viktor Lakhin down low as he continued to make his mark, showed that when he is healthy, he is one of the best players on this Bearcats roster and he was making his presence known early as he was playing a huge role on both ends of the floor. The Vikings really were locking down on Nolley which would free up Lakhin and allow him to be a huge presence on the glass.
The Bearcats knew they had to get their offense going though in the final four minutes of the first half as they held just a four-point lead, as they led the Vikings 28-24 at the final media break of the first half. The Vikings would say otherwise after a huge and-1 by Yahel Hilly that would cut the Bearcats lead to three as they led 30-27 with just under one minute in the first half.
The Bearcats would take a 30-29 lead to the break after a slow start to this one, the Bearcats would look to come out with some adjustments and find ways to get Nolley going as that would allow the floor to open up. Cleveland State however, is doing a fantastic job eliminating Nolley inside as he was just held to four points in the first half as it seemed like every time, he touched the ball the Vikings were sending double teams on him. The Vikings were making it hard for Nolley and the Bearcats to get anything going offensively, so look for the Bearcats to run some designed sets to free guys like Nolley up to start the second half.
