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 (Chicago, IL/Shepard) (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, IN/Indian Hills CC) (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/John Ehret) (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, IL/Morgan Park) (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 ~
