NORMAL, Ill. – Junior Matt Samuels (Washington, DC/South Suburban College) (Washington, D.C.) recorded career highs of 22 points and five steals as the Chicago State men's basketball team concluded its three-game road swing through the state of Illinois here Wednesday night with an 85-41 defeat to host Illinois State on Doug Collins Court at Redbird Arena.
With the win, the Redbirds improved to 5-2, while the Cougars fell to 0-7 on the year.
The visitors claimed an early 5-3 lead on a jumper from graduate student Lee Fisher (Dolton, IL/Northern Illinois) (Dolton, Ill.) at the 16:32 mark of the first half before the Redbirds used a 15-5 run over a five-minute span to post a 17-8 lead with 11:57 remaining in the stanza. An 11-0 run later in the half expanded ISU's advantage to 38-14 at the four-minute mark and took a 42-21 lead into halftime.
Samuels went 7-of-16 from the field and connected on all six of his free throw attempts, while Fisher added 11 points and posted a game-high nine rebounds. Senior Ardarius Simmons (Chicago, IL/Southeastern (IA) CC) (Chicago, Ill.) dished out a team-best three assists for the Green and White.
Redshirt sophomore Jon Ekey led Illinois State with 19 points and shot 7-of-10 from the field, and Tyler Brown contributed 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting from three-point range. Junior Jackie Carmichael grabbed eight rebounds and freshman Nic Moore tallied a game-high seven assists.
CSU returns to the Emil and Patricia Jones Convocation Center this Saturday afternoon against Toledo with a start time of 2:05 p.m.
~CSU~
