Vikings Fall to Wisconsin, 82-62, in Season Opener

Angel Roque Scores Career-High 13 Points

Angel Roque led CSU with a career-high 13 points Friday night against Wisconsin.

Nov. 9, 2007

Final Stats

Contact: Greg Murphy

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland State hung tough with Wisconsin for 34 minutes, but the Badgers used a late run and received a game-high 37 points and 12 rebounds from Jolene Anderson to earn an 82-62 win over the Vikings in the season opener for both teams on Friday night in the Wolstein Center.

"I am disappointed in the way we finished the game tonight," head coach Kate Peterson Abiad said. "We didn't play our best for the first 34 minutes, but hung right with them. But as a coach, I do feel good that even though we didn't play our best, we hung right with a very talented team."

Angel Roque led the Vikings with a career-high 13 points, while Shawnita Garland added 12 points in her collegiate debut. Kailey Klein chipped in 12 points and three rebounds.

But the story of the night was Anderson, the Preseason Player of the Year in the Big Ten, who scored her career-high 37 points on 13-of-26 shooting from the field, including 9-of-10 at the free throw line.

"Jolene is a big time player and has a great deal of experience playing in big games," Peterson Abiad said. "And she showed tonight why she is a big time player with several clutch baskets."

The Vikings started strong and held their largest lead (19-14) with 10:44 to play in the first half after a jumper from Natalie Miller. However, Anderson scored the next nine points to give the Badgers a 23-19 advantage with 9:21 to play and extended the lead to seven (43-36) at halftime.

"We went into halftime a little disappointed because we know that we are capable of playing better than we did in the first half," Peterson Abiad said.

Wisconsin came out of the locker room and pushed the lead to double digits (47-37) for the first time on a pair of Anderson free throws with 17:25 to play in the game. However, the Vikings refused to quit as they managed to cut the lead to as little as three points, the final time coming on a jumper from Miller with 6:14 to play that sliced the lead to 61-58.

However, it was all Wisconsin from there as the Badgers scored the next 11 points to take a 72-58 lead with 3:34 to play and all but put the game out of reach.

Robyn Hoying added seven points and six rebounds for the Vikings, while Miller finished with six points.

Lin Rae D'Alie was the only other Badger to reach double figures as she scored 10 and added five boards. Janese Banks finished with nine points, five boards and three assists. The Badgers held a 54-39 advantage on the boards and shot 40 free throws compared to 26 for the Vikings.

"We are going to take a lot from this game," Peterson Abiad said. "We are not satisfied with our performance, especially down the stretch and we know we can play at a higher level."

The Vikings will return to action a week from Saturday (Nov. 17) when it hosts Akron for a nonconference game at 3:00 p.m. in the Wolstein Center.