CHICAGO – Chicago State men’s basketball started its 2009-10 season on a good note as it captured an 81-61 home victory over NCAA Division III Concordia University Chicago at the Emil and Patricia Jones Convocation Center.
The first half was a see-saw battle between the two schools before CSU posted a 14-7 scoring drive over five-plus minutes that transformed a slim 17-16 advantage to a 31-23 lead at the 2:27 mark following a jumper from junior Carl Montgomery (Palos Heights, Ill.). A three-pointer by junior Ryan Tyszkiewicz at 2:08 helped Concordia score seven of the final 10 points of the half to slice its deficit to 33-30 heading to halftime.
A 14-7 run in the opening five minutes, led by Montgomery’s seven points, hiked the home team’s leading margin to 47-37 with 15:08 left in the game after a layup by junior Damian Windham (Indianapolis, Ind.). Concordia then tallied a quick 8-2 scoring drive to close within 51-45 at the 13:09 mark after junior Jacob O’Hara. The Cougars later received 10 points from junior Christian Wall (New Orleans, La.) and seven points from Montgomery as part of a 27-16 scoring run in the final 12 minutes to preserve the victory.
“We struggled a little bit in different areas of the game, but this was our first test in front of people. Concordia is well coached, they are a very scrappy team and Coach Jones has done a nice job there,” said third-year head coach Benjy Taylor.
Montgomery paced Chicago State with double-double of 22 points, 17 rebounds and three blocks, all game-high totals. Wall contributed 18 points and four assists, while junior Hajji Martin (Chicago, Ill.) added 10 points and nine boards for the Cougars.
Leading Concordia was Tyszkiewicz with 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field. Junior Jeff Weberg recorded nine points, while Gary and senior James Morgan each added eight points, and junior Deontay Young dished out a game-high fdive assists.
CSU travels to Big 12 country for its road opener this Sunday to compete against Iowa State at Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa with the tip-off set for 6 p.m.
~ CSU ~