A strong second half propelled Cleveland State to a 79-59 victory against Rio Grande on Friday night at the Wolstein Center.

After leading by three at the half, the Vikings (8-5) outscored the Red Storm 44-27 in the second half.

"We needed a game like this to get back on track," said Vikings head coach Gary Waters. "What we wanted to do today is play solid defense and get better on the defensive end."

CSU turned in one of their best defensive performances of the season on Friday night. After allowing five straight teams to shoot 50 percent from the field, CSU held the Red Storm to 35.1 percent.

"We finally held a team under 40 percent from the field, and that's what we're looking to do," said Waters. "We spent about 80 percent of practice this week working on defense."

CSU's defense created 21 turnovers, which led to 25 points. The Vikings also out-rebounded the Red Storm 22-16 in the second half.

"We were really disappointed at halftime that we didn't win the [rebounding] battle," Waters said. "We told them at halftime that we needed to win that defensive battle. And I thought we did a much better job in the second half."

The Vikings shot 51.8 percent from the field and had four players in double-figures. They assisted on 22 of CSU's 29 baskets.

Senior forward Tim Kamczyc's three-pointer just before the half gave CSU a 35-32 lead at the intermission. It also proved to be the go-ahead basket.

It was only the third time this season that CSU has led at the half. The Vikings are 3-0 when they lead at the half and 5-5 when they have trailed or been tied at the half.

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The Cleveland State men's basketball team had no answers for Akron's inside game.

UA dominated the shorthanded Vikings from the opening tipoff and cruised to an easy 87-57 victory Sunday afternoon at the James A. Rhodes Arena.

The Vikings dropped to 7-5 and snapped its 11-game winning streak over teams from the Mid-American Conference. The Zips improved to 6-4 and snapped a two-game losing streak to CSU.

"They [Akron] played their butts off and came with a vengeance," said CSU head coach Gary Waters, whose team has dropped three of its past four games. "Our young kids don't yet understand. I got to get them to understand. Some of them might not be apart of this to understand it."

CSU played without its two best post players in Anton Grady (knee) and Devon Long (suspended) and UA took advantage inside.

The Zips patiently worked the ball down low to its bigs and got a lot of layups and dunks. They held a 42-12 advantage in points in the paint and outrebounded the Vikings 43-23.

"We knew we had a big advantage [inside]," said Zips head coach Keith Dambrot. "Our game plan was to go down in and go down in and go down in."

The Vikings had trouble matching up with UA's size. The Zips' frontcourt of 7'0" senior center Zeke Marshall, 6'7" junior forward Demetrius Treadwell, 6'7" junior forward Nick Harney and 6'11" redshirt freshman center Pat Forsythe dominated the Vikings inside, combining for 56 points and 23 rebounds.

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Cleveland State men's basketball coach Gary Waters won his 300th career game Wednesday night as the Vikings rallied to defeat Notre Dame College 77-66 in a nonconference game at the Wolstein Center.

Waters hit the milestone in his 17th season and has a 300-221 career record. Waters has won 129 games at CSU, 92 wins at Kent State (1996-2001) and 79 wins at Rutgers (2001-06).

"God has blessed me to be able to coach this long and let this happen," said Waters, who is in his seventh season at CSU. "This happens because you have great kids. Coaches don't win 300 [games]. [It's] the players you have and your coaching staff. When you get that you have a chance to win [a lot of games]."

CSU improved to 7-4, while the Falcons dropped to 2-8.

Trailing by seven in the second half, CSU used a 20-8 run over the next seven minutes to take control of the game and never looked back.

The Vikings had five players finish in double figures and shot 60.4 percent from the field.

CSU's defense remains a work in progress. The Vikings allowed NDC to shoot 51 percent from the field. The Falcons also out-rebounded the Vikings by six, including a 12-7 advantage on the offensive side.

"We got to continue to work on this defensive end," said Waters. "I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight because I'll be worrying about that 51 percent."

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Cleveland State Vikings sophomore forward Anton Grady had surgery this week to repair a torn meniscus in his knee and is out for the next six to eight weeks.

"The operation was a success," CSU men's basketball coach Gary Waters said earlier this week. "But [the meniscus] was torn significantly and there is a great possibility that he will be redshirted for this entire year."

Grady, a Cleveland Central Catholic High School product, tore his meniscus against Robert Morris on Nov. 20 and has missed the past three games. The Vikings now have until Jan. 7 to decide whether to redshirt him.

In order to get a medical redshirt, Waters says a player has to play under one-third of his team's games and show proof that the injury is season-ending.

Waters says Grady wasn't fully recovered from having offseason meniscus surgery on his other knee.

"Anton was literally playing on one leg [out there] because of the pain in his leg," said Waters. "Eventually it just went [out] on him"

CSU will have to find a way to overcome the loss of Grady, who was averaging 13.7 points and 5.5 rebounds per game.

"It's a big loss because of the interior situation," said Waters.

The Vikings frontline has been depleted through the first nine games as junior forward Luda Ndaye has missed five games and sophomore forward Devon Long has missed four games.

Ndaye has been dealing with a hip injury. It's unknown why Long has missed four games, but Waters said last week that he isn't hurt.

The Vikings could get back freshman guard Junior Lomomba for Saturday's nonconference game at St. Bonaventure.  

"Junior's foot is improving," said Waters. " [We will] try to get him into [Saturday's] game."

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