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HOUSTON – Thanks to a 71-58 victory at Houston Baptist on Saturday (March 9) evening, Chicago State men's basketball picked up the No. 3 seed in the Great West Conference Tournament. The No. 3 seed comes with a bye into the GWC Semifinals for the Cougars. Chicago State's semifinal game with No. 2 seed Texas-Pan American will be played on Friday (March 15) at the Jones Convocation Center. The game will start at 7:30 p.m. CT.
“This is a huge win for us, it puts us in the semifinals and gives us an extra day to prepare for UTPA,” Chicago State head coach
Tracy Dildy said. “We lost twice to UTPA this year in close games and we'll need the extra day to work on some things. But I couldn't be happier about tonight's win. Everybody contributed to help beat a red hot Houston Baptist team that was 8-1 over their last nine coming into tonight.”
Chicago State was the team that started the game hot, scoring the first eight points of the contest. Houston Baptist rallied and took the lead at 22-21 with 6:13 remaining in the first half. CSU responded with baskets by
Quinton Pippen (Hamburg, Ark./Hamburg) and
Aaron Williams (Chicago, Ill./Chicago Vocational) to put the Cougars up 25-22. Little did the Cougars realize at the time, but they would never again trail in the contest.
The game seemed to tilt the way of the Cougars at the end of the first half. Junior
Nate Duhon (Lansing, Mich./Sexton) nailed a jumper with seven seconds left in the half to put CSU up 34-28. A technical foul was called on HBU's Cody Joyce and the HBU head coach after the clock hit zeros. When the teams came out of the locker rooms Duhon went to the line and made all four free throws. The shots gave Chicago State a 10-point advantage they held for the majority of the second half.
Duhon finished with a game-high 21 points and seven rebounds. He went 9-for-10 from the free throw line and helped the Cougars finish 17-of-20 at the line for the game.
“Over the last four games or so Nate has been supplying us with more scoring,” Dildy said. “He is shooting free throws really well and he's our best guy at getting to the rim right now.”
Junior
Jamere Dismukes (Park Forest, Ill./Rich East) totaled 17 points and five rebounds. Junior
Quinton Pippen (Hamburg, Ark./Hamburg) scored 12 points with seven boards. Junior
Matt Ross (Dixon, Ill./Dixon) also hit double-digits, adding 10 points.
The Cougars forced 21 turnovers while committing just 11 of their own.
Houston Baptist falls to 12-16 (3-5 GWC). The Cougars finish the regular season 9-21 (3-5 GWC).
