CHICAGO (Feb. 26, 2009) – Sophomore Kabangu Tshinga Kasamba (St. Catherine's, ONT/St. Francis) (St. Catharine's, Ont.) posted his second collegiate double-double of a career-high 20 points and a season-best 10 rebounds in leading the Chicago State men's basketball team (8-20, 3-7) to a 71-61 Great West Conference victory over North Dakota (8-19, 5-4) Thursday night at the Emil and Patricia Jones Convocation Center.
CSU opened the game with a 12-2 run over the first six minutes of the game that ended with a three-point play by junior Antonio Lofton (Chicago, IL/Parkland College) (Chicago, Ill.) at 14:20. The visitors then went on a 15-5 scoring drive, led by senior Travis Bledsoe's six points, in 7:18 to even the score at 17-17 following a three-pointer from junior Chris Clausen at the 7:02 mark. After a near three-minute span that included four lead changes and two ties, the Cougars broke a 20-all tie by outscoring their opponents by a 10-5 margin in the final 3:47 to enter halftime with a 30-25 lead.
The Cougars began the second half by scoring seven of the first 11 points of the stanza in three minutes to increase their leading margin to 39-29 after Kasamba canned a three-pointer at the 17:02 mark. A 20-10 scoring run in a 10-minute stretch helped the Fighting Sioux bounce back to at 49-all tie with 6:57 left in the game after junior Derek Benter's three-point play. The home team went back to work as it scored 22 of the final 34 points in the final six-plus minutes that included going 10-of-10 from the free throw line in the final 2:11 to preserve the victory.
“We're starting to play better basketball now. We're shooting the ball better and moving the ball better. This was a good win for us because they (North Dakota) was a tough team to play against since they shoot it well and spread the defense, CSU head coach Benjy Taylor said. ”We just have to build on this game since we have a tough South Dakota team coming here (Saturday) and we're just trying to position ourselves better for the conference tournament.”
Junior Carl Montgomery (Chicago, IL/Shepard) (Chicago, Ill.) added 16 points and seven boards, and Lofton finished with 14 points for Chicago State. Junior Christian Wall (New Orleans, LA/John Ehret) (New Orleans, La.) recorded nine points and hit all seven of his free throw attempts.
Bledsoe paced North Dakota by scoring a game-high 24 points, while connecting on 6-of-12 from three-point range. Senior Travis Mertens added 10 points and a game-high two steals, and redshirt freshman Jordan Allard posted seven rebounds, including five on the offensive end.
The Cougars host Great West leader South Dakota this Saturday afternoon in a key conference showdown at the Jones Convocation Center with a start time of 4:30 p.m.
~CSU~
