Box Score BALTIMORE – The Chicago State University men's basketball team found itself in a tightly contested third-place contest today against Presbyterian in the Battle 4 Atlantis Mainland Tournament at UMBC's RAC Arena before falling to the Blue Hose by a close score of 75-73.
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Presbyterian jumped out to a 7-2 advantage early in the game's opening four minutes and later increased its lead to 10-5 on an Ethan Kay three at the 14:38 mark before the Green and White pulled within 12-10 with 12:31 left in the half after scoring five unanswered points in a quick two-minute span.
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CSU then went to outscore PC by a 41-30 margin over a 23-minute span to gain a 55-51 lead with 10:30 left in the second half on a tip-in by senior Deionte Simmons on offensive rebound of a missed shot. After junior Fred Sims, Jr. hit a three at the 7:58 mark to give the Cougars a 60-55 advantage, PC posted a 12-6 run in four minutes to reclaim the lead at 67-66 on another Kay triple.
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The last two minutes were tense as there were three lead changes and two ties before Simmons hammered a dunk to put the Cougars in front 73-71 with 38 seconds remaining. Kay drained another three 10 seconds later to put Presbyterian back ahead by a 74-73 margin and added a free throw by JC Younger with seven seconds left. The Cougars had an opportunity to win in the final seconds but missed a last-second three-point shot.
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Sims, Jr. led three CSU players in double figures by tallying a season-high 26 points while shooting 10-of-20 from the field and hitting all three of his free throw attempts, while Simmons posted a career-high 18 points on 8-of-12 shooting and grabbed a game high-tying seven rebounds. Senior Montana Byrd recorded a new career scoring high with 17 points and tied Simmons for game high rebounding honors with a season-best seven boards.
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Reggie Dillard tallied 20 points to lead three players in double figures for the Blue Hose.
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CSU continues its road swing on Sunday afternoon as it returns to Iowa for a non-conference game at Drake in Des Moines with a start time of 2 p.m. The game is going be shown live on ESPN 3.
