Eagle men split final home games
The Eagles men’s basketball team went 1-1 in its final home games of the season this weekend, earning a 69-65 win against South Dakota School of Mines, Friday, and a 77-71 loss to Black Hills State University, Saturday.
A record-breaking Chicoine Center crowd of 1,013 watched the fast-paced, back-and-forth game, Saturday, as the Eagles battled BHSU. It was the fourth consecutive home game where the attendance record has been broken.
Both offenses shot well through the first half and neither team managed a big lead.
Following a 34-34 tie at the half, the Eagles grabbed a seven-point advantage near the 11-minute mark of the second, but a pair of unanswered 3-pointers, first from Yellowjacket Stefan Desnica, then from Dez Stoudamire about a minute later, brought the deficit to just one point, 48-47.
Shortly thereafter, fouls by CSC’s Charles Gavin and Jaisean Jackson sent Stoudamire to the free throw line twice. Stoudamire, who is averaging .724 from the line, hit four of five attempts to put the Yellowjackets up 51-48.
A 3-point shot from the Eagles’ Colby Jackson would tie the game 51-51, but the Eagles would never regain the lead.
“I think it came down to makes-and-misses,” CSC Head Coach Houston Reed said. “We had that stretch when we lost that lead where we had good scoring opportunities that we made throughout the game, and that we’ve made throughout the season, that we just did not convert,” Reed said.
Reed said another contribution to the loss was giving up timely offensive rebounds on the defensive end. From the moment CSC tied the game at 51, the Yellowjackets out-rebounded the Eagles 9-4.
6-foot-11 BHSU center Antonio Capley had four of those rebounds, three on offense. Capley played just 15 minutes in the game but produced eight points and 10 rebounds.
“I remember (Capley) from high school,” Reed said. “(Capley) is a big body and you better put a body on him and box him out. We got caught in some rotations where we didn’t go find him and get him boxed out.”
The Eagles did well to limit the Yellowjackets’ best scorers through the first half. 6-foot-6 senior forward Malcom Fraser, of Falkirk, Scotland, who averages a team-high 16 points-per-game, scored just three points in the first and none in the second, though an apparent knee injury took him from the game with about 16 minutes remaining.
Chadron also kept the team’s second-best scorer, Stoudamire, relatively quiet in the first half, but he found his scoring touch in the second half and lead all scorers with 23 points in the game.
“If you look at some of the shots Stoudamire made tonight, he made some big shots; he made some tough shots. We forced him into that. Watching film we knew dang-good-and-well that he can make those kinds of shots and if he was going to score, those were the shots we wanted him to make,” Reed said.
Despite the absence of big point numbers from Fraser, Yellowjacket Desnica hit the 20-point mark, with Tyler Oliver hitting 14.
The Eagles shot 56.5 percent in the first quarter, but dipped to 38.9 percent in the second. Diontae Champion, senior of Pearl, Mississippi, led the team with 21 points. Colby Jackson had 17, Jeremy Ruffin had 11 and Jaisean Jackson had 10.
Friday the Eagles were behind 40-28 at halftime, but rallied in the second quarter. A layup by Jaisean Jackson put the team up 50-49 with about seven minutes remaining and the Eagles held on to the lead from there, breaking their previous five-game losing streak.
The Eagles were led by junior Michael Sparks, of Denver, with 18 points. No other Eagle hit double-digits, but all but two players on the roster scored in the game. Seven players had five or more points, including Sparks.
CSC shot 40 percent in the first half, but followed with a 60 percent shooting average in the second.
The Eagles have three remaining games this season, all on the road. They remain in the mix for the RMAC Shootout following the regular season. To make it Chadron will need to be in the top eight of the conference. Currently the team sits ninth behind Adams State.
Friday, the Eagles travel to Colorado to play CSU Pueblo, currently ranked 15th in the RMAC with a 4-15 record. Saturday, they visit Las Vegas, New Mexico, to face New Mexico Highlands, who sit seventh with an 11-8 record.