CSU women clinch Horizon regular-season title

It marks Vikings’ first outright in program history

The big news came moments after senior guard Mickayla Perdue and her Cleveland State teammates put the finishing touches on an 81-66 victory over Northern Kentucky on March 2 at the Wolstein Center.

Just under 550 miles away, the host Green Bay Phoenix had just been beaten, 65-61, by Wisconsin Milwaukee on the final day of the Horizon League regular season.

CSU’s victory, combined with Green Bay’s surprising loss, propelled the Vikings to the regular-season title and the top seed in the upcoming Horizon League tournament.

In front of the CSU bench, players gathered in a circle and celebrated the program’s first outright regular-season title.

With their ninth straight victory, the Vikings upped their records to 27-4 overall and 18-2 in league play. Green Bay slipped to at 34-6 and 17-3 in the Horizon League.

CSU coach Chris Kielsmeier smiled as he watched his players don championship T-shirts and cut down the net on the basket nearest the home bench.

“How many times do you get to do something as important as this for the first time?” Kielsmeier said. “It doesn’t get any better than this.”

The Vikings earned a bye to the quarterfinals of the tournament. March 7, at Wolstein Center, they

THE SCORE CLEVELAND STATE 81, NORTHERN KENTUCKY 66

will begin defense of the tournament title they won last year.

Tipoff is 6 p.m. against an opponent to be determined.

Perdue and company put themselves in position to vault past Green Bay by taking care of business against Northern Kentucky (10-19, 8-12 Horizon).

Paced by a team-high 25 points by Perdue, the

Vikings gradually pulled away from the Norse after the visitors trailed only 1615 after the first quarter.

CSU built leads of 37-27 at halftime and 67-47 after three quarters.

The Vikings also got stout efforts from senior guard Sara Guerriero (18 points, 10 rebounds) and junior point guard Colbi Maples (18 points).

“We’ve known for the last five weeks we pretty much had to win out for this to happen,” Kielsmeier said. “You have to stay in the moment and control your fate. We did that.”

NKU got a game-high 27 points from freshman center Carter McCray, an Elyria Catholic product.

That the Vikings were able to make this bit of program history is even more satisfying given the loss of senior guard and reigning Horizon League Player of the Year Destiny Leo to a season-ending knee injury after six games.

Leo has been with her teammates throughout and charts shots on the bench. She participated in the postgame celebration.