ORLANDO, Fla. – Senior John Cantrell (Pontiac, MI/Northern HS) (Pontiac, Mich.) recorded a career-best 29 points and tied another career high with six steals, but Chicago State fell to host Central Florida, 89-75, tonight in the championship game of the UCF Holiday Classic at the UCF Arena in Orlando, Fla. With the win, the Knights improved to 8-4 on the year, while the Cougars' season record is now 7-7.
UCF took an early 6-2 lead in the opening 3:25 of the game that culminated with a pair of free throws from sophomore Jermaine Taylor at the 16:35 mark before CSU scored seven of the next nine points in nearly two minutes to claim a 9-8 lead as junior Marquis Young (Chicago, IL/Mineral Area College) (Chicago, Ill.) scored all of the points, including a three-point play at 14:22.
The Knights later broke a 15-all tie by scoring six straight points to capture a 21-15 lead with 8:37 left in the half, but the Cougars notched an 11-3 run in nearly two minutes to capture a 26-24 lead on a three from senior David Holston (Pontiac, MI/Avondale HS) (Pontiac, Mich.) at 6:35. The home team used a 21-9 run with 11 points from Taylor in the final minutes of the half to regain the lead at 47-35 entering intermission.
The second half saw UCF post a 13-4 scoring drive in the first four minutes to hike its leading margin to 60-39 after a three-pointer from freshman Isaac Sosa at 16:04. CSU later came back with a 21-11 run over 7:54 with Cantrell scoring six points and sophomore Nemanja Stankovic (Belgrade, Serbia/Toronto, ON/Vaughan Road HS) (Toronto, Ontario) tallying six points during the stretch which cut its deficit to 71-60 at the 8:18 mark on a pair of free throws from Holston. An 11-3 scoring drive that lasted 4:20 helped the Knights hike their lead back to 81-63 and the Cougars could get no closer than 12 points the rest of the way.
In addition to Cantrell, Holston recorded 14 points with three assists and three steals for CSU, while Young finished with 11 points of 5-of-6 shooting from the field. Stankovic posted a career-high seven points and sophomore Carl Montgomery (Chicago, IL/Shepard) (Palos Heights, Ill.) had a game-high nine rebounds. Holston and Cantrell earned all-tournament team honors for the Cougars.
Taylor posted 38 points to lead UCF and was named Tournament MVP. Freshman A.J. Rompza recorded a game-high 10 assists and six rebounds, while senior Kenrick Zondervan added 10 points. Sosa and sophomore A.J. Tyler each contributed eight points for the Knights.
CSU opens the 2009 portion of its schedule on Saturday, Jan. 3 at the Emil and Patricia Jones Convocation Center against Eastern Michigan with the tip-off at 2 p.m.
~ CSU ~
