March 7, 2008

Contact: Greg Murphy

SETTING THE SCENE: Cleveland State (15-13, 9-8 HL) concludes the regular season on Saturday, March 8, when the Vikings travel to Loyola for a 2:00 p.m. CST contest with the Ramblers in the Joseph J. Gentile Center. The Vikings enter the regular season finale tied for fourth place in the league standings with Butler and Valparaiso, one-game behind third place Milwaukee (10-7).

PREVIEWING CLEVELAND STATE: Cleveland State has made huge strides from last season's 8-22 team, having already surpassed that win total (15-13) and standing two games over .500 after 28 games for the first time since 1983-84. With the return of four starters, the Vikings have experience at every position and a solid bench to rely on. Horizon League Player of the Year candidate Kailey Klein (19.5 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 2.9 apg) is ranked second in the league in scoring. She is joined in the backcourt by senior Brittany Korth (9.6, 4.6, 3.9) and sophomore Angel Roque (5.9, 2.5 apg), who has set the defensive tone for the Vikings this season with her ball pressure out front. Junior Dominique Butler (10.3, 5.7 rpg) and senior Robyn Hoying (5.2, 3.4) have started all 28 games in the frontcourt. CSU has received tremendous production from its bench, led by sophomore forward Stephaine Crosley (5.0, 4.0), freshman guard Shawnita Garland (3.7, 2.0) and sophomore guard Jessica Roque (4.6, 1.7). Junior Natalie Miller (2.8, 1.6) provides depth at the wing-forward spot, but has missed the last eight games due to an injury.

THE HEAD COACH: Kate Peterson Abiad is in her fifth year as the head coach at CSU. She claims an overall record of 43-100 and ranks third all-time in coaching victories at Cleveland State. Prior to arriving at CSU, Peterson Abiad spent six years as an assistant at Wisconsin, serving as the recruiting coordinator starting in 1998. While in Madison, she helped lead the Badgers to the NCAA Tournament three times and to the 2000 WNIT championship. She also worked at Eastern Illinois (1993-97) and Indiana (1991-93). A 1991 graduate of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, she earned Kodak All-America honors as a senior after setting the NCAA Division III record for three-point field goals per game (3.85).

RECORD SETTER: Kailey Klein set a school-record and tied another with her 17-for-21 performance at the free throw line at UIC on Thursday. The 17 free throws made are a school-record, breaking the old mark of 15 held by Klein (earlier this season) and Deb Taylor, who made 15 free throws at Valparaiso on Jan. 11, 1990. The 21 attempts tied the school-record set by Lanette Taylor versus St. Bonaventure on Jan. 4, 1992.

WHERE DID THE "D" GO?: Entering last week, the Vikings had allowed just one team to shoot better than .500 from the field. That was Green Bay, which hit.667 (34-51) from the field in a home win on Jan. 10. However, CSU has let the last three opponents, Valparaiso (.500), Butler (.538) and UIC (.524) all reach the .500 mark. In addition, the three have combined to go 28-of-55 (.509) from three-point.

SCORE AND BOARD: Kailey Klein enters the final regular season game leading the team in scoring (19.5) and ranking second in rebounding (5.5) behind Dominique Butler (5.7). Klein, who has gabbed 153 rebounds this season, trails Butler by seven rebounds for the overall team lead. If Klein can overtake Butler, she would become the 15th player in school-history to lead the team in both scoring and rebounding in the same season. Erin Martin last accomplished the feat in 2004-05 when she averaged 13.1 points and 4.9 rebounds per game.

ON THE MARK: Dominique Butler has found the range of late, hitting 24-of-47 (.512) from the field over the last four games to move into eighth place in the Horizon League in field goal percentage (.504). That percentage ranks as the ninth best for a single season in CSU history. Butler is attempting to become just the ninth player in school-history to shoot better than .500 (minimum of 150 field goal attempts) from the field in a season and the first since Mandy Sichting shot .531 (85-160) in 2004-05.

ON THE HORIZON: The win at Youngstown State on Feb. 23 was CSU's ninth in league play this season, which ties the record for most league wins in a season. This year's squad currently shares the mark with the 2003-04 team which went 9-7 in league play in Kate Peterson Abiad's first season at the helm.

WHERE WE STAND: With one game left in the regular season, Cleveland State is in a battle to earn one of the top four seeds in the upcoming league tournament, which would ensure the Vikings of hosting a quarterfinal game on March 12. Green Bay has already clinched the regular season title, but there are five teams fighting for the final three spots. The Vikings are assured of finishing no worse than sixth place in the league. Following is a look at the teams and their remaining schedules.

Team Games Left
2. Wright State (11-6) @ Milwaukee
3. Milwaukee (10-7) vs. Wright State
4. Valparaiso (9-8) @ Butler
5. Cleveland State (9-8) @ Loyola
6. Butler (9-8) vs. Valparaiso

ALL ABOUT KLEIN: With one regular season game remaining, Horizon League Player of the Year candidateKailey Klein has put together one of the best seasons in school history. Here are some highlights.
• Second in the league and 18th in the country in scoring (19.5) by tallying double figures in 25 of the 28 games.
• Has 13, 20-point games and four 30-point efforts.
• Three-time Horizon League Player of the Week (12/31 & 1/28 & 2/4).
• Ranks fourth in the league in free throw percentage (.840), ninth in three-point field goal percentage (.372), 10th in offensive rebounds (2.03), 11th in steals (1.71) and minutes played (32.7), 12th in rebounding (5.5) and field goal percentage (.454) and 14th in assists (2.92).
• Named to Preseason All-Horizon League first team and Great Alaska Shootout All-Tournament team.
• Has had two separate streaks of 18 consecutive made free throws. • Set school-record with 17 free throws made at UIC (3/6). Also tied a school-reocrd with 21 attempts in the same game.
• Horizon League Scholar-Athlete of the Week (11/27) and January Scholar-Athlete of the Month.
• Went 11-for-11 at the free throw line at Colgate (12/20), the second best performance at the charity stripe in school history for a single game.
• Tied her career-high with 33 points at Alaska Anchorage (11/20), at Valparaiso (2/2) and at Detroit (2/16).
• Hit jumper at the buzzer to lift CSU over American, 65-63 (12/29).
• Recorded first career double-double versus Youngstown State (1/26) with 30 points and career-high 11 rebounds.
• Has made 179 free throws, the most in a single season at CSU. Her 213 attempts are second most in a season at CSU, 22 shy of first place.

500: With a 25-point effort on Feb. 28 against Valparaiso, Kailey Klein joined an exclusive club in CSU history, becoming just the 10th player in program history to reach the 500-point plateau for a single season. Klein, who now has 546 points this season, became the first CSU player to score 500 points in a season since Erika Roudebush scored 544 points in 2002-03. Her 546 points are the third most in a single season at CSU, just 25 shy of second place and 89 short of the school-record of 635 points held by Dianne Foster in 1982-83.

SAME `OLE ROUTINE: Head coach Kate Peterson Abiad has had the luxury of using the same starting lineup for all 28 contests this season with Dominique Butler and Robyn Hoying in the frontcourt and Angel Roque, Brittany Korth and Kailey Klein in the backcourt. That has allowed Peterson Abiad to define the roles of her five bench players and establish a consistent roatation with nine players averaging double digit minutes. That is a far cry from last season when injuries forced Peterson Abiad to use six starting lineups during the season.

NO REST FOR THE WEARY: Over the last four games, Brittany Korth has played 193 out of a possible 200 minutes to raise her season total to 967 minutes played. Korth is 33 minutes shy of becoming the fourth player in school-history to play 1,000 minutes in a season. If she does reach the mark, she would be the first player since Audra Cook (1,090) and Mahogany Green (1,000) reached the mark in 1999-00. Kailey Klein is second on the team with 916 minutes played and has an outside chance to reach the 1,000 minute mark this season.

THE DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES: Cleveland State enters the week with a 15-13 overall record, including a 9-8 mark in league play, giving CSU seven more overall and four more league wins than all of last season. The Vikings went 8-22 overall and 5-11 in league play last season. The 15 wins are tied for the fourth most in school history and the most for a CSU team since the 1999-2000 team finished 15-15.

BIG IMPROVEMENT: The Vikings have won seven more games than all of last season, marking the second best improvement from one season to the next in program history. The record is nine games from 1981-82 (14-15) to 1982-83 (23-6).

AFTER 28: CSU carries a 15-13 record into Saturday's game at UIC, the best 28-game mark since the 1983-84 team started the year with an 19-9 mark. It is only the third time in school history that CSU has posted a 15-13 record or better through 27 games.

CAREER DAY FOR BUTLER: Dominique Butler had a career day at Youngstown State on Feb. 23, finishing with a career-high 25 points on 9-of-11 shooting from the field. Butler also had eight rebounds, four steals and hit all seven of her free throws. Her previous career scoring high was 21 points on 9-of-10 shooting from the field at Miami (OH) on Dec. 1, 2007.

KORTH NOT TO SHABBY, EITHER: Senior Brittany Korth played one of her finest all-around games during her time at CSU on at Youngstown State (Feb. 23), totaling 15 points, five rebounds and three steals. However, her most impressive statistics were seven assists and zero turnovers in 39 minutes of action.

KLEIN AT DETROIT: Sophomore Kailey Klein does not seem to mind playing in Calihan Hall in Detroit as she tied her career-high with 33 points on Feb. 16. It was the fourth time that Klein reached the 33 point mark for her career with one of the times coming last season in Detroit (Feb. 10). In two career games in Calihan Hall, Klein is averaging 33.0 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists, while shooting 21-of35 (.600) from the field, 6-for-13 (.462) from three-point and 18-of-24 (750) at the free throw line.

SPECIAL "K": Kailey Klein is attempting to join an elite group of company in CSU history. After leading the team in scoring as a freshman (11.0), Klein is on track to lead the team in scoring for the second straight season as she is averaging 19.5 points per game this season. She would be just the third player in school history to lead the team in scoring in her first two seasons, joining Sue Hlavacek (1974-75, 1975-76) and Deb Taylor (1987-88, 1988-89).

ROAD SWEET ROAD: CSU entered the season with a 4-42 record away from the Wolstein Center over the last three seasons. But it appears that CSU has figured out how to win on the road as the Vikings have gone 7-8 away from Cleveland this season.

VIKINGS GO BACK-TO-BACK: The Vikings finished the month of January with a 6-2 (.750) record, their best mark in a month since going 9-3 (.750) in December of 1983. It was also CSU's second consecutive winning month after posting a 4-2 mark in December, marking the first time the Vikings have recorded back-to-back winning months since November (3-1) and December (5-2) of 1999. CSU has not put together three consecutive winning months since December of 1983 through February of 1984.

... BUT CAN'T EXTEND STREAK : CSU could not clinch a third straight winning month, finishing 3-4 in February after Thursday's (Feb. 28) loss to Valparaiso. The Vikings won their first two games in February, but three straight losses put the streak in serious jeopardy before CSU won at Youngstown State on Feb. 23 to get back to .500 setting up the make or break game with the Crusaders.

WINNING SEASON CLINCHED: With two games remaining in the regular season and a minimum of one game in the Horizon League Championship, the Vikings have assured themselves of their first non-losing season since the 2000-01 team posted a 14-14 mark. If CSU wins one more game, the Vikings will finish above .500 for the first time since the 1998-99 team went 15-13.

KORTH KEEPS PLAYING: Brittany Korth has played in 115 career games and needs to play in two more to equal Juli Grant's (1995-00) school record of 117 career games played. Barring unforseen circumstances or injury, Korth will at least tie the record as CSU has one more regular season game and will play at least one game in the league tournament.

FOR STARTERS: When Brittany Korth drew a starting assignment on Thursday at UIC, she moved into fourth place on the all-time list at CSU for most career starts. Korth, who has started 94 career games, needs three more starts to move into a tie for third place with Lori Johnson who started 97 games from 1990-95.

THE BUTLER DID IT: Dominique Butler recorded three steals at UIC on Thursday to raise her team leading total to 77 and move closer to overtaking the Horizon League lead. Butler, who led the league in steals in each of her first two seasons, is ranked second this season with 2.75 steals per game. She trails Wright State's Sheylani Peddy who has 84 steals in 26 games (3.23). For her career, Butler has swiped 205 steals, which is tied for sixth on the all-time list at CSU. Butler, the eighth player in school-history with 200 career steals, is two steals shy of moving into fifth place.

HOME SWEET HOME: CSU finished the regular season with an 8-5 mark at home, including 6-3 in league play. The eight wins are tied for the third most home wins in school-history with the record of 11 shared by the 1982-83 and 1998-99 squads. The record was within reach as the Vikings were 8-2 at home following a win over Milwaukee on Feb. 7, but CSU dropped its next three games in the Wolstein Center.

MOVING ON UP: Brittany Korth continues to move up the all-time list for career three-pointers made and attempted. Korth is third in school-history with 160 career makes and second with 566 attempts. Korth is also sixth on the all-time assist list with 330, needing 14 assists to take over sixth place.

THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE FREE: CSU is the best free throw shooting team in the league, hitting 408-of-510 attempts for a .800 percentage, a far cry from last season's .684 (425-621) percentage from the line. In fact, the Vikings, who are ranked fourth in the nation in free throw percentage, are shooting better from the free throw line than all but three NBA teams. CSU is on pace to shatter the school-record for free throw percentage in a season, currently held by the 2000-01 squad which shot .728 (480-659). The league record is .801 set by Green Bay last season.

.700: The Vikings have had just three seasons (out of 34) in which they have finished with a free throw percentage better than .700. The last time it happened was the 2003-04 season when CSU hit .709 (406-573). The other two seasons were 2000-01 (480-659; .728) and 2001-02 (442-617; .716).

FREE THROWS ARE A TEAM EFFORT: The Vikings have made it a true team effort to lead the league in free throw percentage as seven players are shooting better than .700 from the line. However, only Kailey Klein ranks among the league leaders in free throw percentage, ranking fourth at .840 (179-213). No other player has made the minimum of 2.0 free throws per game to be ranked among the leaders. Dominique Butler is second on the team with 51 made free throws, and would be ranked fourth in the league (.850) if she had four more makes.

A DEEPER LOOK AT FREE THROWS: Kailey Klein has been the only Viking to get to the free throw line on a consistent basis. In 28 games, she has taken 42 percent (213-of-510) of CSU's free throws, including 43-percent (125-of-294) of the Vikings free throws in 17 league games.

DOUBLE TROUBLE: Kailey Klein added another first to her career on Jan. 26 when she recorded her first career double-double in a 77-64 win over Youngstown State. Klein finished with a game-high 30 points, just three shy of her career-high, and added a career-best 11 rebounds. Klein is the third CSU player to tally a double-double this season, joining Stephaine Crosley, who had 11 points and 13 rebounds at IUPUI (12/5), and Robyn Hoying, who totaled 20 points and 10 boards at Green Bay (1/10).

CRYING FOUL: The Vikings have been whistled for 500 fouls compared to 474 for their opponents. However, when delving deeper into the subject, you find that CSU has had 22 disqualifications this season, compared to zero for its opponents. The 22 disqualifications are the second most in school-history with the record of 28 being held by the 1991-92 squad.

THE BIG THREE: When looking at the statistics, it is easy to see there are three big factors in determining when the Vikings win and when they lose. Those factors are rebounding, scoring defense and field goal defense. In 15 wins, the Vikings own a +1.7 rebounding advantage, while holding opponents to 55.4 points and .362 shooting from the field. On the other hand, CSU has a -5.8 deficit in rebounding and gives up 73.7 points on .451 shooting in 13 losses this season.

NOT PLAYING NICELY: The Vikings are ranked second in the Horizon League, averaging 10.12 steals per game. In addition, CSU boasts three of the top 11 individual leaders in steals with Dominique Butler ranking second (2.75), Brittany Korth eighth (1.89) and Kailey Klein 11th (1.71). The Vikings have swiped double-digit steals in 16 contests this season, including a season-best 19 vs. Akron (Nov. 17), which were the most steals by a Viking squad since CSU recorded 19 steals against IPFW on Feb. 26, 2003.

FROM THE FIELD: The Vikings have shot well from the field this season, hitting .419 (628-1,500) to rank fourth in the Horizon League. That total would be the fourth best in school-history, trailing the 1992-93 (.442), 1983-84 (.438) and 2002-03 (.428) squads. CSU has not shot better than .400 from the field since 2003-04 when they hit .405.

FROM THREE: CSU is also shooting .328 (161-491) from three-point this season, which would be tied for the best percentage for a single season in program history. The current record is .328 (117-357) held by the 1992-93 team. CSU shot just .272 (123-453) from three-point last season.

NO SUSPENSE: Twenty-one of CSU's 28 games have been decided by 10 points or more with the 15 wins coming by an average of 13.9 points. CSU's 13 losses have been by an average of 13.3 points.

AND WE TEND TO KNOW BY HALFTIME ...: Whether CSU will win or not. After all, the Vikings are 13-2 this season when holding a lead after the first 20 minutes of action. CSU's two losses when leading at the half this season were an 80-72 overtime loss at Alaska Anchorage when the Vikings led 24-20 at halftime and a Jan. 12 loss at Milwaukee (63-52) when the Vikings held an eight-point (30-22) lead at intermission. The Vikings are just 2-11 when trailing or tied at the half.

HOMETOWN COOKIN': Milwaukee native Dominique Butler apparently likes to save her best for when the Vikings play her hometown Panthers as Butler averaged 14.5 points and 6.0 rebounds, while shooting .560 in two games against UWM this season. In six career games against the Panthers, Butler is averaging 12.0 points and 5.7 rebounds per game.

VIKINGS SHOOT LIGHTS OUT: Cleveland State recorded the second best shooting performance in school history in a Feb. 2 win over Valparaiso as the Vikings shot .571 (32-56) from the field. The only time a Viking team shot better from the field was Jan. 21, 1980 at Niagara when CSU shot .627 (32-51).

BEYOND THE ARC: The Vikings 9-for-14 (.643) effort from three-point range against Detroit on Jan. 17 equaled the school-record for the best percentage by a CSU team. CSU also went 9-for-14 against Green Bay on Jan. 2, 2003.

PERFECTION: For just the second time in school history, the Vikings did not miss a free throw in a game as CSU was 14-for-14 at the charity stripe on Feb. 2 at Valparaiso. It was the second best performance in a single game, topped only by a 15-for-15 effort at Milwaukee on Feb. 4, 1995. The streak was extended to 22 straight makes before Stephaine Crosley missed a free throw late against Milwaukee (Feb. 7).

UP NEXT: CSU will begin play in the Horizon League Championship with a quarterfinal game on Wednesday, March 12 at a site and time to be announced following the conclusion of Saturday's conference games.