Jan. 7, 2002

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Vikings Look To Maintain Share Of League Lead

Playing its third consecutive Horizon League home game, Cleveland State will look to stay atop the conference tonight against Wright State. The Vikings start their busy week tied with UW-Milwaukee, UW-Green Bay and Detroit at 2-0 in league play. CSU leads the all-time series with the Raiders by a 22-14 margin, including a 10-6 record in Cleveland. The Vikings have won four in a row against WSU and 10 of the last 12. Last year, CSU won 71-61 in Fairborn and 72-59 in Cleveland. Following tonight's contest, CSU closes out its four-game Horizon homestand Thursday against Illinois-Chicago before traveling to Detroit on Saturday.

Green & White Heading For Uncharted Waters

The Vikings are 2-0 in league action for the first time since the 1992-93 campaign when they opened play in the Mid-Continent Conference with a pair of wins at Eastern Illinois and Western Illinois. A win tonight over Wright State would improve Cleveland State to 3-0 for the first time in 14 years of conference affiliation (North Star, Mid-Con and Horizon League).

Triple Threat

Last year the Vikings continued their torrid pace from behind the three-point arc during Duffy Burns' tenure, knocking down 215 bombs to finish 4th in the nation with 7.7 per game (Iowa State led at 9.1 pg), while pacing the conference for the sixth consecutive year. Overall, CSU has made a three-pointer in 255 straight contests - ranking behind only Louisville's current 303 game run in NCAA annals. The last time the Vikings failed to drain at least one triple in a game was in a 78-55 loss at Cincinnati on December 17, 1992. Cleveland State currently leads the Horizon League with 6.27 triples per game.

80's Enough

In the six-plus seasons since Duffy Burns arrived in Cleveland, the Vikings have hit his self-proclaimed "magic number" of 80 points 51 times in 179 games (28%). Of those 51 contests, CSU has been victorious on 47 occasions (92%). All four losses were to conference opponents: UW-Milwaukee (2/17/96), Butler (2/24/96) and Detroit (1/30/97 & 2/5/00). The Vikings were 9-0 last season when topping 80 points and are already 5-0 this year.

Wonder If She Gets Stuffing With That?

Former Vikings hoopster Mahogany Green (1997-01) left yesterday for Turkey, where she just signed a contract to play professionally. Green finished her CSU career with 1,366 points and 615 rebounds.