JUVISY, France – Cleveland State finished its five-game European tour undefeated with a 102-61 win at Juvisy on Thursday night with a dominating effort from start to finish and balanced scoring attack with five players in double figures.
Bryn Forbes scored a game-high 25 points, hitting 7-of-11 from three-point. He added two assists and finished the five games in Europe averaging 22.8 points per game.
Charlie Lee scored 16 points and dished out seven assists, while Sebastian Douglas finished with 11 points, five assists and three steals. Marlin Mason tallied 11 points and eight rebounds and Aaron Scales finished with 10 points and five rebounds.
Jon Harris led the Vikings with nine rebounds as eight players grabbed at least four rebounds as CSU held a commanding 58-28 advantage on the boards.
CSU played tonight without Anton Grady who sat out to rest as the Vikings were playing for the fifth time in seven nights.
The Vikings arrived at the gym about 40 minutes prior to tip because of two accidents on the highway that caused a back-up for miles, but showed little rust and wasted little time in jumping on Juvisy. A three-pointer by Forbes two minutes in gave the Vikings a quick 10-3 lead and it was a sign of things to come in the first 10 minutes.
CSU used hot shooting and a suffocating defense to take a 31-12 lead after the first stanza. The Vikings shot 13-of-22 from the field in the opening quarter and were led by Lee's 10 points, including a floater in the lane just before the final buzzer.
Juvisy managed just 2-of-12 shooting from the field, scoring eight of its 12 first quarter points at the free throw line.
CSU pushed its lead to 20 points less than three minutes into the second quarter on a Demonte Flannigan offensive rebound and putback and Forbes three-pointer that gave the Vikings a 36-16 lead. The advantage swelled to as many as 27 points (47-20) on aDevon Long steal and breakaway dunk before CSU settled on a 51-25 halftime lead.
The third quarter belonged to Scales, who scored eight points and grabbed three rebounds in his five plus minutes of work. Scales scored six points in the opening minute of the quarter to push the CSU lead to 57-25. Lee followed with two free throws then found Forbes for a three-pointer in transition to extend the advantage to 62-28 with seven minutes left in the quarter.
CSU led 74-44 at the end of three.
Forbes found his shooting touch to start the fourth quarter, hitting three three-pointers in the first 90 seconds, en route to 16 fourth quarter points.
The Vikings shot 41-of-75 (.547) from the field and hit nine three-pointers. CSU's defense held Juvisy to 31-percent shooting and forced 21 turnovers.
CSU will spend its final day of the European Tour in Paris on Friday before departing back home for Cleveland on Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m. The first day of classes are on Monday (Aug. 26).
(Release courtesy of CSU athletics media relations)
