OREM, Utah—The Chicago State Men's basketball team finished slow in WAC duel against Utah Valley in the UCCU Center on Thursday night, falling 71-103.
Anthony Harris (Gary, Ind., Griffith (Ind.)) led Chicago state as the lead team-scorer with 15 points, alongside
Patrick Szpir (Wheeling, Ill., Wheeling) who also grabbed 15 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists.
Rob Shaw (Louisville, Ky., St. Xavier) also contributed 15 points and 3 assists.
Within the first twenty seconds, CSU's
Anthony Harris (Gary, Ind., Griffith (Ind.)) drained a three. However, Utah Valley answered back. The two teams continued this pattern through nine lead changes and two score ties. They tied at 23-23. With 6:27 left in the first half, UVU broke away after stealing the ball on back to back plays, making six of their seven three pointers. At the end of the first half, the cougars trailed 38-54. The cougars were able to maintain a higher field goal percentage than the wolverines in the first half going 17-27. But, they were unable to contain UVU's momentum in the second half.
Within the first five minutes in the second half,
Rob Shaw (Louisville, Ky., St. Xavier) drained a jumper from inside the paint closing the gap 45-59. Unfortunately, the cougars could not get back in rhythm to reach a smaller point difference for the rest of the game. Within
the final minutes,
Rob Shaw (Louisville, Ky., St. Xavier),
Noah Bigirumwami (Santa Clarita, Calif., Village Christian) and
Patrick Szpir (Wheeling, Ill., Wheeling) paced the cougars, breaking the scoring plateau that stunted the cougars. The cougars went 8 for 15 in the last 6 minutes, falling to the wolverines 71-103.
UVU outscored CSU in the paint 36-24. Utah Valley was led offensively by
Jake Toolson (Gilbert, Ariz. / Highland HS) who scored the game-high of 25 points, while
Richard Harward (Orem, Utah / Orem HS) recorded 19 points and 16 rebounds for the Wolverines.
The conclusion of the game on Thursday kicks off the three-week countdown until the WAC Tournament in Las Vegas. CSU will return to action this Saturday afternoon at the Redhawk Center at 3 p.m. CT. The Cougars are set to take on the Seattle University in WAC action.
