Men’s basketball team drops 2 in Colorado

The Chadron State College men’s basketball team lost both games this weekend, first to the Adams State Grizzlies, 80-65, Friday night, before suffering an 87-64 loss to the No. 21 ranked team in D-II, the Fort Lewis Skyhawks.
Friday night the Eagles opened with a 12-4 lead before Adams State started hitting shots to go on a 10-0 run to take the lead. The rest of the half was hard fought with the Grizzlies entering halftime with a four-point lead.
The second half was a different story. Although the Eagles’ field goal percentage improved by five percent, the Grizzlies shot 47 percent from the field en route to making seven 3-pointers. With the help of eight Chadron turnovers, the Grizzlies outscored the Eagles by 11 in the half to seal the 15-point victory.
“We played two good teams last weekend and didn’t shoot the ball or defend the way we needed to,” Matt Reader, junior of Appleton, Wisconsin, said.
On the night, Leigh Saffin, redshirt sophomore of Warrnambool, Australia, scored a season-high 18 points in 19 minutes, hitting five 3-pointers to lead the Eagles in scoring. Darius Polley, junior of Amarillo, Texas, accounted for 14 points while Jordan Perry, junior of Murrieta, California, recorded a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Four Grizzly players scored in double digits, led by Brandon Sly, junior of Los Angeles, California, with 14, while Bryan Umoru, senior of Dallas, and Shane Johnson, junior of Killeen, Texas, scored 11 each. Kevin Dorsey, senior of Atlanta, Georgia, added 10 points in only 16 minutes of play.
The Fort Lewis Skyhawks shot an unbelievable 63 percent from the field during the first half Saturday night, resulting in a 49-20 lead. With nine players scoring during the first half and only committing two turnovers, the Eagles struggled to get stops. Despite outscoring the Skyhawks 44-38 in the second half and shooting 56 percent compared to Fort Lewis’ 36, the Eagles still suffered a 23-point loss.
Despite seven turnovers, Polley exploded for a season and game-high 26 points, being the Eagles only double digit scorer.
Rasmus Bach, junior of Austin, Texas, and Daniel Hernandez, junior of El Paso, Texas, led the Skyhawks in scoring with 13 apiece. Joshua Blaylock, senior of Lancaster, California, and Riley Farris, redshirt freshman of Hutto, Texas, followed close behind with 12 and 11, respectively. Bach also accounted for 10 rebounds.
The Chadron State basketball teams return home this weekend with games against Colorado State University-Pueblo, Pueblo, Friday night, while hosting the New Mexico Highlands University Cowboys of Las Vegas, Saturday night. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m., following the women’s games.
“It’ll be nice to have some home games in front of our awesome crowd the next few weeks,” Reader said. “Hopefully we can bounce back and defend out home court and get some wins this weekend.”