CHICAGO – Chicago State men's basketball received double-digit scoring efforts from four players, led by a season-best 18 points from senior Mike Wilson (New York, NY/Mt. San Jacinto CC) (New York, N.Y.), as it opened the year 2009 with a 79-61 victory over Eastern Michigan Saturday afternoon at the Emil and Patricia Jones Convocation Center. The Cougars improve to 8-7 on the season, while the Eagles' season record dropped to 2-11.
The visitors broke an early 4-4 tie by scoring nine straight points over 4:20 with four points from redshirt sophomore Brandon Bowdry to capture a 13-4 lead and Bowdry later connected on a jumper to hike EMU's advantage to 15-6 at 12:55. Back-to-back three-pointers by Wilson started a 13-6 scoring run which lasted six-plus minutes to close within 21-19 with 6:16 left in the stanza.
After redshirt sophomore Will Cooper hiked the Eagles' lead to 25-20 at 3:31, the home team scored seven of the half's final nine points to even the score at 27-all heading into intermission which culminated with sophomore Nemanja Stankovic (Belgrade, Serbia/Toronto, ON/Vaughan Road HS) (Toronto, Ontario) posting back-to-back layups in the final 29 seconds.
EMU tallied five of six points in the opening 1:12 to regain the lead at 32-28 after a Bowrdry layup at 18:28 before CSU posted a 22-2 run over four minutes with senior John Cantrell (Pontiac, MI/Northern HS) (Pontiac, Mich.) tallying 11 points during the run to capture a 50-34 lead with 14:22 left in the contest. Cooper scored six points as part of a 16-10 Eagle scoring drive in six-plus minutes that sliced their deficit to 60-50 at the 8:12 mark. A 19-11 scoring drive in the final eight minutes, which included going 6-of-7 from the free throw line, helped CSU close out the game.
Senior David Holston (Pontiac, MI/Avondale HS) (Pontiac, Mich.) finished the game with a double-double of 17 points and a season-best 11 assists for the Cougars. Cantrell tallied 15 points on 6-of-13 shooting from the field, while sophomore Carl Montgomery (Chicago, IL/Shepard) (Palos Heights, Ill.) added 11 points and senior Tawrence Walton (Chicago, IL/Kennedy-King College) (Chicago, Ill.) posted nine points.
Bowdry posted a pair of game highs with 23 points and 10 rebounds to lead Eastern Michigan. Cooper recorded 16 points and eight rebounds with three steals, while junior Justin Dobbins added nine points and six boards.
Chicago State opens a three-game road swing Monday night at Kansas State at Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan, Kan., with a start time of 7 p.m. The game will be shown live on the internet at ESPN360.com and it is free to the public.
~ CSU ~
