FOSTER WONDERS

Cleveland State men’s basketball featured a brand new roster Monday night in its season opener at Loyola Chicago, including Foster Wonders.

Wonders, a former Iron Mountain High School star, was a starter for the Vikings in Monday’s 91-88 loss. He scored eight points and collected six rebounds.

Cleveland State is one of six teams in Division I with all new players. The Vikings are one of eight teams in the country with no returning scholarship players. Cleveland State finished 23-13 overall last season.

Wonders began his college career at Southern Illinois before transferring to Green Bay for his sophomore and junior seasons. At Green Bay, he played in 57 career games and averaged just under seven points per game.

Monday’s game was the first for Rob Summers as Cleveland State head coach. Summers was named the 18th head coach in program history in April. He served as an assistant coach at Cleveland State under Dennis Gates from 2019-22. During that time the Vikings won two Horizon League regular season titles and one tournament title, making postseason appearances in the NCAA Tournament in 2021 and the NIT in 2022.

On Monday, Loyola’s Deywilk Tavarez nailed a three-pointer as the final buzzer sounded for the game-winning points.

In the Horizon League’s preaseason poll voted on by coaches, media members and sports information directors from each of the league’s institutions, Cleveland State was picked eighth in the rankings. Wisconsin-Milwaukee was picked as the preseason favorite in the 11-team league.

Loyola Chicago was picked fifth in the Atlantic 10 preseason poll.

The Vikings return to Cleveland to host Capital University in the home opener on Thursday night at the Wolstein Center.