Wednesday, March 19th, 6:00 p.m. (et).

FACTS & STATS: Site: University of Dayton Arena (12,995) -- Dayton, Ohio. Television: ESPNU. NIT Record: Cleveland State 2-2, Dayton 33-19. Series Record: Cleveland State leads, 3-2.

GAME NOTES: First-round action of the NIT pits the Cleveland State Vikings against the Dayton Flyers. The winner of this game will move on to face either second-seeded Illinois State or seventh-seeded Utah State. Cleveland State, seeded sixth, is making its first postseason appearance in two decades. The Vikings are just the second team in the history of the Horizon League to win 20 or more games in a season after losing 20 games the previous year. They are 21-12 overall and are coming off a 70-55 loss to Butler in the Horizon League Tournament title game. As for Dayton, it is seeded third with a 21-10 overall record, including a 14-3 mark at home. The Flyers are appearing in the NIT for the 21st time, and they actually won the event way back in 1962 and 1968. Still, it will be interesting to see if they use a perceived NCAA Tournament snub as motivation or an excuse to play lackluster ball. Cleveland State owns a 3-2 series edge over Dayton, and the last meeting resulted in a win for the Vikings in 1999.

Cleveland State relies heavily on the duo of J'Nathan Bullock and Cedric Jackson to carry the load offensively, and those two players have responded quite well. Both have started all 33 games this season, a sign of their durability. Bullock is scoring 15.0 ppg to go along with 6.6 rpg, while Jackson checks in with 14.0 ppg and 163 assists. Defensively, the Vikings are limiting opponents to just 63.5 ppg on 41.9 percent shooting from the floor. The fact that Cleveland State was picked to finish ninth in the league according to a preseason poll is proof of the tremendous job turned in by both the coaches and players. Sure, the team was simply outplayed in the conference tourney title game, but this is a quality team capable of making some noise in the NIT.

The top performer for Dayton is Brian Roberts, a 6-2 senior guard who is scoring 18.4 ppg on the strength of his 44.7 percent shooting from three-point range. Roberts is also knocking down 85.8 percent of his free throws, so the team can feel secure when he has the ball late in close games. In addition to the scoring ability, Roberts is dishing out 3.7 apg. The only other active double-digit scorer is Marcus Johnson, who is tallying 10.2 ppg. In the A-10 Tournament loss to Xavier last time out, Johnson exploded for a career-high 26 points on the strength of a 13-of-16 effort from the foul line. Unfortunately, Roberts was held to 13 points. Dayton is only allowing 64.7 ppg, and the Flyers are outrebounding foes by nearly five boards per contest.

Give a narrow edge to Dayton based solely on the homecourt advantage. Still, expect Cleveland State to keep things close.

Predicted Outcome

Dayton 67, Cleveland State 63