Men’s team’s only road win comes at the last game of season

Chadron State’s men’s basketball team traveled to Denver to take on Regis University for its final game of the season. With a fight-to-the-end mentality, the Eagles (7-19, 5-17 RMAC) earned their first road win of the season Friday, edging out the Rangers (9-19, 7-15 RMAC) 77-70.

The Eagles built a lead early in the game that they would never let go, although Regis cut a second-half 16-point lead to seven before the final buzzer sounded.

For the first time all season, CSC’s top three scorers all scored in double figures in the same game.

Sharif Black, sophomore of Detroit, and Warren Gordon, junior of Indianapolis, each dropped 16 for the Eagles. Billy Johnson, junior of Cedar Hill, Texas, added 10.

The scoring contribution didn’t stop there, however, as Jordan Perry, sophomore of Murrietta, California, chipped in an efficient 14 points on just six attempts from the field, putting an exclamation point on a well-balanced scoring performance for the team.

“I think a huge difference in the game was simply being able to make shots,” Chadron State Head Men’s Basketball Coach Brent Bargen said.

Bargen also attributed the win to the players’ will to keep competing and their defensive effort, consistently keeping Regis out of the paint throughout the game.

In the weeks leading up to the season’s conclusion, CSC players expressed that despite a rough season, a win in the final game would be great for the mentality and momentum of the team going into the offseason. Bargen added to that concept, agreeing that a win would provide positive momentum and a spark of confidence moving forward. However, he feels that the struggle the team endured this season should be just as much motivation for them to improve.

The Eagles plan to return much of this season’s roster next season, as they only wave goodbye to three seniors, two of which were post players.

Bargen explained that some first year players can typically be less comfortable on the floor opposed to their following season.

“The system gets easier for guys in the second year,” Bargen said. “Since we had the amount of new players that we did, we had a lot of ups and downs. Some players would start off the year on a high note and just kind of drift, while other players may have started off slowly but picked it up as the season progressed.”

Bargen feels that being able to just focus on recruiting new big men rather than half a team of new personnel will bode well for the team and coaching staff in the off season, as it will be easier to teach the system to two new players instead of a number much larger.

“We’re getting all of our guards back,” Bargen said. “So, we really just need to find a couple of bigs.”

Despite the season not going as the Eagles would have preferred, Bargen had many good things to say about this year’s team, keeping him optimistic for the following season.

“I think some positives are the returners we have coming back, including our top three scorers,” Bargen said. “This team worked hard until the end. They were coachable and had chemistry on and off the court.”