Dec. 20, 2008

Contact: Greg Murphy

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SETTING THE SCENE: Cleveland State returns home to begin a brief two-game homestand with its final two nonconference games when the Vikings host Niagara on Sunday, Dec. 21, beginning at 3:00 p.m. in the Wolstein Center. It will only be CSU's fourth home contest of the 2008-09 campaign. The Vikings have lost three staight, including Friday's 76-66 setback at Ohio, are 4-6 overall, while Niagara is just 1-9 with its lone win coming at Horizon League member Youngstown State.

PREVIEWING CLEVELAND STATE: Coming off the most successful season in school history, sixth-year head coach Kate Peterson Abiad welcomes back three starters and eight letterwinners from last year's team that won the Horizon League Championship and advanced to the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history. The lineup is keyed by six players who made significant contributions to last year's squad, headlined by junior guard Kailey Klein (18.3 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 2.8 apg), a first team All-Horizon League pick last season. Klein is joined in the backcourt by junior twin sisters Angel (6.7 ppg, 3.2 apg) and Jessica Roque (9.9 ppg, 2.9 rpg), while sophomore Shawnita Garland (9.8 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 2.6 apg, 2.5 spg) serves as the top reserve off the bench. Senior Dominique Butler (11.9 ppg, 6.8 rpg, 3.1 spg) leads the frontcourt after earning Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year accolades last season, while junior Stephaine Crosley (4.0 ppg, 4.9 rpg) slides into the starting lineup. Senior Natalie Miller (1.0 ppg, 0.8 rpg) also figures into the rotation, while freshman guards Janelle Adams (1.9 ppg, 1.4 rpg) and Takima Keane (1.0 ppg, 1.0 rpg) and forward Destinee Blue (1.8 ppg, 1.4 rpg) are slowly working their way into the rotation as they adjust to the speed and flow of the collegiate game.

THE HEAD COACH: Kate Peterson Abiad is in her sixth year as the head coach of the Vikings and claims an overall record of 51-107 (.323) after leading the Vikings to 19 wins last season. The sixth head coach in school-history, Peterson Abiad spent six years as an assistant coach at Wisconsin, serving as the recruiting coordinator starting in 1998. She also worked at Eastern Illinois (1993-97) and Indiana (1991-93). A 1991 graduate of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Peterson Abiad earned Kodak All-America honors her senior season after setting the NCAA Division III record for three-point field goals per game at 3.85.

A PERFECT 30: Kailey Klein scored a CSU season high 30 points in Monday's (Dec. 15) loss at Ohio State, marking the sixth time in her career that she scored at least 30 points in a game, the most in school history. Klein's six 30 point games betters the old mark of five 30 point contests, which was shared by Deb Taylor, Dianne Foster and Lanette Taylor.

KLEIN NOW 10TH ON SCORING LIST: With her 13 point effort at Ohio on Friday night, junior Kailey Klein increased her career scoring total to 1,155 points and moved into 10th place on the CSU career scoring list. Next up on the list is Megan Williams, who is 32 points ahead of Klein for ninth place with 1,187 points.

KLEIN HAS HIGH SCHOOL JERSEY RETIRED: Kailey Klein had her high school No. 23 jersey retired at Hall H.S. in a ceremony on Dec. 12 between the varsity girls and boys games in Spring Valley, Ill. The all-time leading scorer in school history, Klein scored a conference record 2,496 career points, adding 1,188 rebounds. She averaged 24.0 points per game as a senior, finishing as the third runner-up for Illinois Ms. Basketball.

THE BUTLER STOLE IT: Dominique Butler set a career-high with nine steals on Dec. 6 against Kent State, surpassing her previous career-high of eight steals done multiple times. Her nine steals, which are tied for the third most in a game in CSU history, are also tied for the third highest total in a Division I game this season. Only Vivian Frieson of Gonzaga and Angel McCoughtry of Louisville have had more swipes in a game this season as each had 10 in a game.

... AND CHASING THIRD STRAIGHT SCORING CROWN: Kailey Klein is once again in familiar territory, leading the team and ranking third in the Horizon League with an 18.3 scoring average. Klein is attempting to become just the third player in school history to lead the team in scoring in three straight seasons. She began the streak as a freshman, averaging 11.0 points per game, the second lowest average by a player who led the squad, and increased her scoring average to 19.9 points per game as a sophomore. Klein would join Megan Williams (1994-97) and Debra Taylor (1987-91) as the only players to lead the team in scoring for three consecutive seasons.

CSU IN THE NCAA STATS: The third edition of the NCAA statistics were released on Monday, Dec. 15 and Cleveland State was well represented. As a team, the Vikings ranked 28th in the nation in field goal percentage (.451), 48th in assists (15.5) and 73rd in free throw percentage (.719). In addition, Dominique Butler was 23rd in the nation in steals (3.3 ) and 67th in field goal percentage (.511), while Kailey Klein was 57th in scoring (17.5).

BUTLER NEARING 1,000 PONTS: Senior Dominique Butler is continuing her quest to become the 21st player in school history to reach the career 1,000 point mark, needing just 42 points to reach the career 1,000 point plateau.

1,000 TIMES TWO: If Dominique Butler joins Kailey Klein with 1,000 career points this season, they will be just the third pair of teammates to score their 1,000th point in the same season for CSU. Ashley Schrock and Shannon Sword were the last to accomplish the feat in 2003-04, while Terri Miller and Lisa Kipp were the first ones to do it during the 1987-88 season.

ANOTHER BUTLER MILESTONE IN REACH: Dominique Butler is on the verge of becoming just the 12th player in program history to score 1,000 points and grab 500 rebounds in a career. Butler, who has 517 career rebounds, is 42 points shy of 1,000. She would join Audra Cook, Dianne Foster, Deb Taylor, Mary Petrecca, Lanette Taylor, Terri Miller, Sue Hlavacek, Ashley Schrock, Megan Williams, Mahogany Green and Shannon Sword as the only players in school history with 1,000 points and 500 rebounds for their careers.

... AND IF YOU ADD STEALS: Dominique Butler will be in even more elite company as Dianne Foster is currently the only player in school history who has recorded 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 250 steals for a career. Butler needs just six more steals to reach 250 career steals. Foster is the school-record holder for career points (1,851) and ranks second in rebounds (941) and steals (355).

MILLER TIME: Senior Natalie Miller had a solid line in her seven minutes of work on Friday night at Ohio, finishing with a season-high five points, two rebounds and a steal. Miller, who has been limited by ankle injuries this season, has hit 4-of-5 (.800) from the field this season.

TALE OF TWO HALVES: It seems the Vikings might need the first half to get warmed up on the offensive end. Through 10 games, CSU is averaging 26.6 points and shooting .361 (109-302) from the field in the first half. However, the Vikings have been the complete opposite over the final 20 minutes, averaging 38.7 points in the second half, while shooting .507 (149-294) from the floor.

WORKING OVERTIME: The 84-77 overtime loss to Kent State on Dec. 6 marked the fourth consecutive season that the Vikings played an overtime game as CSU fell to 13-16 all-time in games that go into OT. In fact, the Vikings have lost five consecutive overtime games with CSU's last win coming against Wright State, 72-68, on March 10, 2000, in the Horizon League Championship semifinals.

TOUGH SCHEDULE: CSU has six games on the schedule against teams that advanced to the postseason last year. CSU has already played Arizona State, Illinois State and Ohio State, teams that went to the NCAA tournament and American, an NIT qualifier a year ago. The Vikings still have two league contests against Green Bay, an NIT participant last season.

MAKING HER POINT: Junior point guard Angel Roque ran her consecutive games starting streak to 54 when she started at Ohio on Friday night. Roque, who finished with 11 points and a career-high seven rebounds against the Bobcats, has played some of her best basketball over the last five games, averaging 8.4 points and 3.9 assists per game. The streak started with a 13 point, three assist effort at American (Nov. 30) and was followed by a 10 point, four assist game at Akron on Dec. 3. Roque is sixth in the league with 3.3 assists per game.

KLEIN AT THE LINE: Kailey Klein continues her torrid assault on the CSU record book for career free throws made and attempted. The junior, who has hit 61-of-72 (.847) at the line this season, ranks third in school history in free throws made (378), just 14 shy of breaking Debra Taylor's record. In addition, Klein's 474 career attempts are fourth all-time in program history, just 88 shy of Lanette Taylor's career mark. For good measure, Klein's .797 career free throw percentage is third all-time in CSU history.

THE TOP-6: The majority of the damage done this season has been done by Cleveland State's top-six players - starters Stephaine Crosley, Dominique Butler, Kailey Klein, Angel Roque and Jessica Roque and sixth player Shawnita Garland. Together, the six have accounted for 94-percent of CSU's points, 82-percent of their rebounds, 95-percent of CSU's assists and 93-percent of the Vikings steals. The six players have been on the court for 1,807 of a possible 2,025 minutes this season.

OUT OF THE BLUE: Freshman Destinee Blue received her most extensive action of the season on Monday (Dec. 15) at Ohio State, playing 16 minutes off the bench. She finished with four points and tied her career-high with three rebounds. Blue, who has played in nine contests this season, is shooting .538 (7-13) from the field and is averaging 1.8 points and 1.4 rebounds per contest.

SPARK OFF THE BENCH: Sophomore Shawnita Garland has taken a liking to her role as CSU's top reserve and is playing herself into serious consideration for the Horizon League's Sixth Player of the Year Award. Garland is averaging 9.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 2.5 steals per game in 26.6 minutes per game, ranking second in the league in field goal percentage (.543), and fifth in steals. Garland, who dished out a career-best seven assists in the season opener at Arizona State (Nov. 14), scored a season-high 18 points with a career-high tying seven rebounds at Ohio on Friday night.

ROAD WOES: CSU will be glad to see the Wolstein Center on Sunday afternoon, as it will be just the fourth home game of the season for the Vikings. CSU has gone just 2-5 away from home, including a 1-5 mark in true road games.

WINTON TO JOIN VIKINGS: Shalonda Winton, one of the top players in Pennsylvania, has singed a National Letter of Intent to play at Cleveland State beginning with the 2009-10 academic year. A 5-foot-11 wing/forward, Winton averaged 16.0 points per game as a junior leading Westinghouse H.S. to the Pittsburgh City League Championship and a 23-5 overall record. Winton was named to the all-city first team, as well as the Pittsburgh Post Gazette first team last season.

KLEIN NAMED TO ALL-HORIZON LEAGUE SQUAD: Kailey Klein has been selected to the preseason All-Horizon League first team for the second straight season. A 5-foot-11 guard from Cherry, Ill., Klein was second in the league in scoring last season (19.9) and ranked among the top-15 in rebounding, assists, steals, field goal percentage, free throw percentage three-point FG percentage and minutes.

A MUCH IMPROVED TEAM: The Vikings were the fifth most improved team in Division I in 2007-08 with a nine and a half game improvement. After going 8-22 in 2006-07, CSU turned things around by going 19-14 last season.

FIT TO BE QUEEN: Junior Angel Roque picked up the title of Homecoming Queen during the annual Vike Fest activities and her honor was announced at Viking Madness on Oct. 17. The king was men's basketball standout Cedric Jackson.

UP NEXT: Following a break for the holidays, the Vikings return to action on Monday, Dec. 29, when CSU hosts Buffalo at 7:00 p.m. in the Wolstein Center.