Cleveland State cruises as Devezin sits [Updated with quotes]

Marist faced Cleveland State for the second straight year Saturday night. Although the Red Fox team was different, the result was not.

Marist shot 34.7 percent from the field and dropped an out-of-conference game, 66-47, to the Cleveland State Vikings.
The result did not come as a complete surprise since Marist faced the Horizon League preseason favorite without standout point guard David Devezin. Devezin injured his heel last week against Memphis and the coaching staff decided to hold him out for tonight's game. Marist does not return to action until Dec. 20 in the Aeropostale Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden.
Marist head coach Chuck Martin said that Devezin remains day-to-day and will be re-evaluated throughout the week as he gets treatment. Since Cleveland State is not a MAAC opponent, the decision was a little easier on Marist head coach Chuck Martin.

“We discussed [resting him for the week until the Madison Square Garden tournament] a little bit,” Martin said. “The most important thing is the league. Obviously Cleveland State, a good team at home, would you want to win that game, absolutely but not at the expense of making [Devezin’s] injury worse. So if that means we have to play without Dave for the next 10 days and hopefully he’ll be back for the Saint Peter’s game, then that’s what we’ll do.”

Without Devezin in the lineup, Marist sputtered out of the gate. Martin believed his team was not ready to match Cleveland State’s intensity.

“I just thought we were flat to be honest,” Martin said. “Again, give those guys a lot of credit and give their staff a lot of credit, but I think there were two or three possessions in the first half where we were just flat.”
Devezin's injury forced freshman R.J. Hall into a starting role. In his first career start, the Bloomfield Tech product scored six points and dished out four assists in 31 minutes of action.

Coach Martin tailored both his offense and defense to Hall and getting the freshman acclimated to the role.

“I was afraid to put too much pressure on R.J., a freshman [in] his first start,” Martin said. “Usually we pick up full-court [defense] and go after guys, but I was really afraid that if [Hall] got into foul trouble then we were really in trouble…and really that’s not how we play.”

Although Martin scaled back the offense for Hall, the head coach has been pleased with his point guard’s progress all season long.

“He’s been great all year, he really has been,” Martin said of Hall. “Here’s a kid who’s been playing major minutes, and he’s done a great job thus far. I’m excited about him [and] I’ve always been excited about him from the moment we recruited him.”

Hall feels the start was a great experience for him and attributed a lot of his success to senior Ryan Schneider.

“My first start was a good experience. Coach actually came to me and talked to me about it…He told me, ‘no pressure on you, don’t feel like the spotlight is on you, stay within yourself and lead the team,’” Hall said. “Ryan also helped me because he’s the leader of our team and he kept me grounded throughout the whole game. With coach and Ryan and the coaching staff, I felt good about today.”
Martin also chose to start freshman forward Alex Vouyoukas. Vouyoukas had the most productive night of any Red Fox. He tallied seven points on 3-of-3 shooting in 14 minutes. Vouyoukas' role has increased steadily throughout the year and this will continue to be the case come conference play.
Forward Ryan Schneider led the Red Foxes in scoring with 14 points. Schneider's scoring output was a game high. The senior captain also grabbed five rebounds and notched three assists. With Devezin sitting, Schneider emerged as a marked man for Cleveland State. In their last three games, the Vikings have held opponents to 32.5 percent shooting. Marist proved no different.
Cleveland State and Horizon League star J'Nathan Bullock led the Vikings in scoring with 11 points on 4-of-8 shooting. Bullock also hauled in eight rebounds and had three steals.
After Marist grabbed an early 7-6 lead, Cleveland State embarked on a 19-1 run. Marist closed the deficit to five after a 12-0 run capped off by an R.J. Hall three-pointer.
Cleveland State regained the momentum, however, when Cedric Jackson nailed a buzzer-beating three-pointer at the end of the first half. The Vikings went into halftime with a 32-22 lead.

The early 19-1 run proved too much to overcome.

“It’s hard to recover from something like that,” Martin said. “They swung first and obviously hit and we had no response. We couldn’t react quick enough.”