In the Tim Cluess era, Iona basketball has failed to win a game in the state of Ohio.

Under Cluess, the Gaels have an 0-5 record in the Buckeye State, including two NCAA tournament losses the last two years in Dayton.

This streak continued during the first game of the year for the Maroon & Gold.

Despite holding a 15-point lead at the half and a 10-point lead with under 10 minutes left in the second half, the Gaels opened the 2013-14 season with a 73-69 loss to Cleveland State.

In the first half, the Gaels showed why they led the country in points per game the last two years.

After trailing 21-20 with 10:34 left in the first half, the Maroon & Gold went on a 24-8 run over the final ten minutes of the period to lead 44-29 at the intermission.

Leading the way for the Gaels in the first half were senior guard Sean Armand and junior forward David Laury, both of whom were named to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) preseason first team.

Armand led all scorers with 16 points in the first 20 minutes, while Laury had 13 points and six rebounds.

Iona took a commanding lead in large part because of their hot shooting. The Gaels connected 54 percent of their first half shots, while the Vikings only scored on 30 percent of their shots.

Any success the Gaels had offensively evaporated quickly following the start of the second half.

Within the first 4:30 of the second half, the Vikings went on a 17-2 run to get within two points of Iona.

Iona responded by building its lead back up to 10 points with 7:22 remaining. However, Cleveland State remained resilient and countered with a 10-0 run to tie the game at 64 with 4:04 left.

With 2:18 remaining, sophomore Trey Lewis hit a go-ahead 3-pointer to give Cleveland State a 69-67 lead. This was the first Viking lead since they had a 21-20 advantage at the 10:34 mark in the first period.

Iona tied the game at 69 on a Laury layup with 1:51 left in the contest.

However, Armand fouled Lewis with 25 seconds remaining, which allowed the Vikings’ guard to hit two free throws to give Cleveland State a 71-69 lead.

Laury was unable to convert two late free throws, which would have tied the game 71-71. Vikings sophomore forward Anton Grady secured the victory sinking both of his free throw attempts with five seconds remaining.

With this win, Cleveland State has won their last three match-ups against Iona, giving them a 3-1 advantage in the all-time series between the two schools.

Following the loss, Armand was upset with his teams’ performance.

“We need to be smarter as a team,” Armand said. “We beat ourselves. All we need to do is have second and third efforts, and we will have instantly become better. It all comes down to a matter of effort.”

The Gaels will look to rebound from their season-opening loss on Nov. 16 in their first home game of the season against Wofford at 7 p.m. at the Hynes Athletics Center. They will then travel to Lawrence, Kan. to face freshman phenom Andrew Wiggins and the No. 5 Kansas Jayhawks on Nov. 19.