CLEVELAND DROPS CONFERENCE GAME TO MOTLOW
Motlow State’s shooting skills turned out to be enough to deal the Cleveland State men’s basketball team their second loss of the season Saturday afternoon.
Motlow State's shooting skills turned out to be enough to deal the Cleveland State men's basketball team their second loss of the season Saturday afternoon.
A surge late in the game was not enough to overcome the Bucks, who hit 53.6 percent of their shots in the game in comparison to the 37.1 percent made by the Cougars. By the time the final buzzer sounded, Cleveland State (8-2, 4-2) came up short in an 80-70 loss to Motlow State (7-3, 3-2).
"We had a good start and then we struggled against a good team. We did get back into the game but we had dug ourselves too big of a hole by then," Cougars head coach Lee Cigliano commented.
After the first half, Cleveland State was trailing their conference foe by four points, 41-37.
The Cougars found themselves in a double-digit hole late in the second half and were unable to battle back against the Bucks.
The team has a bit of a different look due to the loss of a few players from injuries, which has forced players to be moved around to new positions.
"We've had a lot of changes in the last three or four days with our team and were really shorthanded going into the weekend. It's a lot to ask when we've had so many changes," Cigliano explained.
"Our team looks different right now – we're smaller and have a lot more guards than forwards. We're going to try and do a makeshift change to our offense just for this week. When we get back from the break we'll get more serious about the changes that we're going to make on offense and how we're going to play. Hopefully we'll get a few guys back from injuries, that would really help us."
Cam Copeland led the Cougars offensive efforts and scored 20 points in the game. Copeland also had five steals.
Tevin Olison followed with 19 points and had five rebounds on Saturday. Romero Hill also reached double digit scoring, finishing with 13 points and four rebounds.
Cleveland State travels to Gadsden State Community College on Thursday, which will be their last game before the holiday break.
"The break will come at a really good time for us to try and get some guys who are injured healthy again," Cigliano said.
