Men’s basketball earns first win
Although it has been an exciting early portion of the Chadron State College men’s basketball schedule, the Eagles were still lacking a signature win to their start.
That changed Saturday evening as head coach Brent Bargen led the Eagles to capture their first win of the season against the Montana State University Billings Yellowjackets, by a final score of 87-74.
The Eagles utilized a balanced scoring effort as nine players registered scores on the night, eight of which scored at least five.
Junior guard Kevin McClelland, of Long Beach, Calif., scored a career-high 21 points.
Teammates Ron Hudson, redshirt freshman forward of Detroit, Ray Mitchell, junior forward of New Orleans, and Jan Burris, senior forward of Los Angeles, contributed to the victory with double digits scoring 15, 12 and 10 respectively.
The Yellowjackets also had four players in double figures led by senior Raason Young’s 17 points.
Montana State University-Billings grabbed an early lead of 17-10 when Leon Sutton sank a pair three pointer with 11:35 to play in the first-half.
From that point CSC chipped away points over the next several minutes and finally took the lead when Hudson snagged a rebound and sank a shot with four minutes left and a score of 26-25 in favor of the Eagles.
The two teams traded baskets the rest of the way and entered halftime with CSC holding a 39-34 lead at the break.
The Yellowjackets did not go away quietly in the second-half, but the Eagles seemed to only gain momentum that was triggered by the end of the first half.
CSC shot nearly 54 percent in the final half (16-30) while MSU-Billings was limited to only 51%. CSC also forced the Yellowjackets into 19 turnovers throughout the game.
The Eagles took the lead by as many as 14 in the second half and managed to keep the Jackets with timely buckets down the stretch.
Jordan Lisco, sophomore of Douglas, Wyo., sank two three-pointers in the last five minutes separating the score 89-60.
A crowd pleasing dunk by Moala Tautuaa, junior center of San Francisco, Calif., in the last thirty seconds concluded the night.
The Yellowjackets were be unable to register another point against Chadron State’s defense.
The Eagles will be back in action this weekend facing the Mesa State College Mavericks on Friday and Western State College Mountaineers on Saturday.
Both games are scheduled for tip off at 8 p.m. in the Armstrong Gymnasium. Friday’s game is the beginning to the RMAC season for the Chadron State team.