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GREEN BAY, Wis. – Chicago State men's basketball opened the 2012-13 season on Saturday (Nov. 10) afternoon with a 72-67 setback at UW-Green Bay. The Cougars led 65-61 with five minutes remaining before the Phoenix finished the contest on an 11-2 run.
“The energy level was great,” Chicago State men's basketball head coach
Tracy Dildy said. “To come in and fight hard and play in this environment against a team picked to contend in the Horizon League is a something to build on.”
The Phoenix, picked to finish third in the Horizon League according to the preseason poll, were led offensively by Keifer Syke's game-high 31 points.
The Cougars couldn't have asked for a better start to the season as they ran out to a 13-1 advantage. UW-Green Bay fought off the early jitters to eventually take a lead in the first half. But it was the Cougars holding a 30-27 lead at the break thanks to scoring the last six points of the half.
The second half featured 11 lead changes and nine ties. For a brief moment it looked like the Phoenix were pulling away when they took a 48-41 advantage with 12:48 to play. A layup and then back-to-back 3-pointers by junior
Quinton Pippen (Hamburg, Ark./Hamburg) (Hamburg, Ark./Hamburg/Missouri State-West Plains CC) tied the game at 49 barely a minute later. When senior
Jeremy Robinson (Decatur, Ill./Eisenhower) (Decatur, Ill./Eisenhower/Iowa Western CC) hit a jumper in the paint with 5:09 remaining the Cougars grabbed the aforementioned 65-61 lead. Eight straight points by the Phoenix followed and the Cougars were down by four with under a minute to play. Junior
Greg Tucker (Chicago, Ill./Lincoln Park)'s (Chicago, Ill./Lincoln Park/North Dakota State College of Science) layup with 30 seconds remaining gave the Cougars life, but UW-Green Bay's Alex Brown iced the contest with a pair of free throws.
Junior
Jamere Dismukes (Park Forest, Ill./Rich East) (Park Forest, Ill./Rich East/BlackHawk College) led the Cougars with 18 points. Robinson added a double-double of 17 points, 10 rebounds and two steals.
The Cougars held advantages in points in the paint (28-22), points off turnovers (37-28), fast break points (12-4) and bench points (32-16).
The difference in the game came at the charity stripe. Chicago State limited UW-Green Bay to only 15 field goals, but the Phoenix made 41-of-48 free throw attempts. The Cougars made 14-of-15 attempts at the line.
“We were fouling at times when we needed to be buckling down on defense,” Dildy said. “We didn't play any exhibition contests so for a first game out that over aggressiveness is something we can work on going into Tuesday.”
UW-Green Bay is 1-0 while the Cougars are 0-1. The Cougars host Concordia Chicago on Tuesday (Nov. 13) in the home opener for Chicago State. Tip is set for 7:05 p.m.
