CSC men give up big lead
Eagles’ 46-33 halftime lead diminishes late against Colorado School of Mines
The Chadron State College Eagles men’s basketball team had a chance to energize their season with a win over fourth-ranked Colorado Mines, but late-game misses led to the Eagles’ sixth consecutive loss.
Saturday, the Eagles looked ready to upset the Orediggers, leading 46-33 at the half. But with 7:24 remaining, Mines caught fire as Chadron fizzled, and a nine-point lead was erased in three minutes. The Eagles never recovered. Colby Jackson, senior of Las Vegas, exited the game with six minutes remaining after suffering a sprained ankle, but returned with 90 seconds left.
Leading the way for Mines, Kobe Betts, junior of Pueblo, Colorado, scored 14 of his career-high 28 points with seven minutes remaining and Brendan Sullivan, sophomore of Highlands Ranch, Colorado, scored 28 points. Junior Michael Glen, of Carbondale, Colorado earned Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Week honors with four blocks and seven rebounds against the Eagles.
“It’s one of those deals where I compliment Colorado Mines more.” Head Men’s Basketball Coach Houston Reed said. “There’s games you lose and games you get beat, and losing is when you don’t do things the right way and you don’t get the result, getting beat is when the other team outplays their opponent and I feel like Colorado Mines outplayed us in the last five minutes of the game.”
In the first half, CSC shot 19 of 34 from the field with Jacob Jefferson, sophomore of Buckeye, Arizona, leading the way with 16 points. Mines saw only one free throw attempt in the first half despite six personal fouls by CSC.
“I was really proud that we put ourselves in the situation we were in, but Colorado Mines, you got to tip your hat, they made their last 10 shots in a row. Offensively, when you’re playing that well you seem to do everything else a lot better. They really intensified defensively and took some things away from us and we didn’t execute some things offensively or finish some shots that we finished throughout the course of the game.” Reed said.
The Eagles host the 11-2 Black Hill State Yellow Jackets, Friday and the 6-7 South Dakota School of Mines Hardrockers, Saturday.
Winning its last 11 games, Black Hills sits at second place in the conference and is led by freshman Joel Scott, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, who ranks fourth in the RMAC with 336 points. CSC brings the RMAC’s fifth-leading scorer in Friday’s matchup with Brian Rodriguez-Flores, senior of Phoenix, scoring 326 points. The Hardrockers give up 69.8 points-per-game, ranking them third in the conference while CSC ranks 12th, giving up 79.8 points-per-game.
“With us being down with some injuries right now, we’re going to have to come up with a defensive plan that will work and work this week to get our guys to buy into it and really go and compete and focus on doing the little things well” Reed said.
Against UCCS, the Mountain Lions’ top-ranked defense held the Eagles to 22 points in the paint. CSC shot a season-high 10 of 19 from beyond the arc but were unable to gain momentum as UCCS kept its lead through most of the game, winning 89-78.
The Eagles sit in the 15th spot of the RMAC with a 2-11 record and rank 16th allowing opponents to shoot 37% from beyond the arc. Reed said Jackson is expected to return during the weekend’s games.