The win equaled the school mark set by the 1992-93 squad for most wins before Jan. 1.
View full sizeNorris Cole lets fly a 3-point shot during Tuesday's 94-62 Cleveland State victory over West Virginia Tech at the Wolstein Center. Cole led the 11-0 Vikings with 24 points, hitting on four of his six shots beyond the arc.Brad Bournival
Special to The Plain Dealer
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Tuesday's win came against an overmatched NAIA program, but it's becoming increasingly hard to keep Cleveland State men's basketball team a secret.
With a 94-62 victory over West Virginia Tech, the Vikings tied a school record for wins before Jan. 1 and held onto the nation's best record. At 11-0, CSU equaled the mark set by the 1992-93 team and can obliterate the record with games against Sam Houston State, West Virginia, South Florida and Loyola left before the final stroke of midnight tolls this year.
"We're in a pretty good spot right now," Cleveland State coach Gary Waters said. "We're really confident.
"They can turn up the heat. We can pressure when we want to and do some things. This team has been built to do this."
The Vikings put the game away early, taking a 19-19 game and making it a blowout by going on a 17-0 run in the span of five minutes. Through the first nine minutes, the Golden Bears (4-2) hung with the Vikings before completely imploding.
"We gave up too many points early," CSU guard Norris Cole said. "We had to remind ourselves that this is a defensive game. Once we went on that run, we remembered who we were and what we had to do."
Who they were is a team that outscored the Golden Bears by 18 in the paint, knocked in 35 points off turnovers and added 20 fast-break points.
Cole was the catalyst again. The senior guard registered his sixth 20-point game of the year to lead all scorers with 24. He added five assists and three boards before exiting with eight minutes left.
"Norris, in my estimation, is the best guard in the Midwest," Waters said. "I said in the Horizon League [before], but it's beyond that now. His floor game is starting to catch up with his abilities.
"It has taken him two years to identify what he has to do as a point guard and now it's coming easy to him."
Trevon Harmon (16 points), Jeremy Montgomery (15) and Josh McCoy (14) also had double-figure efforts. Harmon has scored in double figures nine games in a row, while the 14 points by McCoy were a career high. Montgomery added a career-high eight rebounds and team-high seven assists.
The mettle of the Vikings will be tested the next 11 days with road games at Sam Houston State and West Virginia.
"A couple of things I want to find out is how well we rebound," Waters said. "West Virginia attacks the glass. Sam Houston attacks the glass. So we have to do a much better job there. Also, we're going to find out how strong our defense is."
Brad Bournival is a freelance writer based in North Royalton.