Cleveland St. 64, Akron 51

Published Nov. 24, 2010 10:29 p.m. ET

foxsports

Cole Norris scored 19 points and had seven assists as Cleveland State defeated Akron 64-51 on Wednesday night for its best start in school history.

The Vikings (5-0) broke the record held by the 1963-64 and 1985-86 teams, which each started 4-0. The win was also No. 250 for Cleveland State coach Gary Waters (250-197), who had previous stops at Kent State and Rutgers.

After leading 28-25 at halftime, the Vikings outscored Akron 36-26. Norris, who was 10 for 11 from the free-throw line, had 16 points in the second half.

Akron (2-2) tied it at 35 on Zeke Marshall's layup with 11:39 to go, but Cleveland State responded with a 14-4 run.

Trevon Harmon's 3 capped it for a 49-39 lead with 6:17 left.

Harmon finished with 18 points, Jeremy Montgomery added 12 and Tim Kamczyc 10 for the Vikings.

Nikola Cvetinovic led the Zips with 14 points.