Balance was the deciding factor as senior guard Tevin Smith and the Cleveland State Vikings posted a 71-63 victory over Eastern Michigan on Nov. 16 at the Wolstein Center. Smith finished with a career-high 24 points and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds as the Vikings survived a late charge by the Eagles to up their record to 3-2. The 6-foot 4 Illinois native also gave a solid effort on defense, limiting EMU’s leading scorer, senior forward Jalin Billingsley, to 13 points. The Lutheran East product came in averaging 20 points. “We locked in on defense and executed at a high level,” Smith said. CSU coach Daniyal Robinsn lavished praise on Smith for his work at both ends of the floor. “That was a first-team Horizon League kind of effort,” Robinson said. “We believe he can be one of the top 10 guys in our league.” As good as Smith was, this was anything but a one-man show. Robinson used nine players and eight of them reached the scoring column. All of them made contributions defensively, too. Junior center Dylan Arnett, senior guard Chase Robinson and sophomore guard Tahj Staviskie, a Sandusky native and transfer from Canisius, each finished with 10 points. Freshman guard Je’Shawn Stevenson scored eight points and made two clutch baskets in the closing minutes after EMU erased a nine-point deficit and took a 61-59 lead with three minutes remaining. “Our strength is in our numbers,” Smith said. “We have a lot of talented guys and a lot of ways to hurt you.” Robinson also played the “strength in numbers” card when asked for his early impressions of this CSU team. “These guys have grown so much since our first game. We have a lot of interchangeable parts,” Robinson said. Senior guard Jalen Terry netted a game-high 25 points for EMU, now 2-2.