DeKalb, Ill. — The Chicago State men's basketball team dropped a 64-54 decision to Northern Illinois Friday night at the NIU Convocation Center in DeKalb, Illinois. The Cougars trailed by just one with four minutes remaining in the game but turnovers on four consecutive possessions led to layups extending the NIU lead.
Early on, the Huskies jumped out to a 7-0 lead but Chicago State countered with a three from
Xavier Johnson (Dallas, Texas/Hopkins H.S.) and buckets by
Kalil Whitehead (Detroit, Mich./Cass Technical), Levelle Ziegler and
Carlo Marble (/West Des Moines Valley) to cut the deficit to 9-7. NIU then answered with a 12-4 run of their own on the strength of offensive rebounding and second-chance points. The Huskies outboarded Chicago State 25-13 in the first 20 minutes, including nine on the offensive end, and held an 11-2 advantage in second-chance points.
The nine-point difference matched Chicago State's halftime deficit of 32-23.
The two teams then traded baskets for the first 12 minutes of the second half before Johnson started a 9-0 Cougars run.
Coreyoun Rushin (Chicago, IL/Westinghouse College Prep) converted a pair of free throws, Johnson nailed another jumpshot and Marble drilled a three to cut the deficit to one, 53-52, with 4:07 remaining in the game.
At that point, the Cougars committed turnovers on four consecutive possessions and NIU converted each of those into layups to extend the lead to nine, 61-52, with 1:08 remaining to play.
Johnson led the Cougars with 23 points on 8-of-16 shooting, including 5-of-10 from beyond the three-point line. Zeigler added 10 while Rushin, playing in his first game of the season due to a Division I Council waiver restriction allowing DI transfers immediate eligibility, led the team in rebounding with eight.
The Huskies had a balanced scoring attack with four players in double figures led by Tyler Cochran with 15. He also had a team- and game-high 12 rebounds.
Chicago State has just two non-conference games remaining before Western Athletic Conference play begins. The first of those two will be in Des Moines, Iowa, at Drake at the Knapp Center at 2 p.m. The Cougars will conclude non-conference play Tuesday, December 22, in Ames, Iowa, at Iowa State at Hilton Coliseum.
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Next:
- Who? Drake
- Where? Knapp Center, Des Moines, Iowa
- When? Sunday, December 20, 2020, at 2 pm CT
- Broadcast: Local audio on WAC Digital Network
