Preview: Chicago State Men's Basketball at Loyola Tuesday, Nov. 16 at 7 p.m.

Chicago State will play its first of five consecutive road games of the season, albeit not having to leave the city for the first of those games, traveling north to the Gentile Arena on the campus of Loyola Chicago to face the Ramblers, Tuesday, Nov. 16, before traveling to California for a pair of games, at UCSB Saturday, Nov. 20, then Pacific on Monday, Nov. 22. The final two road games of the five will be at Bowling Green on Sunday, Nov. 28 then at Loyola Maryland on Wednesday, Dec. 1.

Series History with Loyola Chicago
CSU and Loyola faced each other 11 times, with the Ramblers holding a 1-10 advantage in the series, which includes an 88-51 Loyola victory last season at the Gentile Area. The last, and only, victory for the Cougars was on Nov. 29, 2000 at home, by a score of 78-76. 

Trending...
Chicago State's season-opening win over St. Thomas was head coach Gerald Gillion's first as a collegiate head coach ... That win also snapped a 28-game losing streak, dating back to December 2019, an 89-81 win over SIUE in Edwardsville ... The game against St. Thomas was the Cougars first action in nearly a year, last playing Dec. 20, 2020, in what turned out to be a nine-game, COVID-shortened 2020-21 season ... The Cougars win over SIUE (67-56) last Friday night marked the Cougars first two-game win streak over Division I opponents since the 2014-15 season (Feb. 26 vs. GCU, W, 74-70; Feb. 28 vs. Utah Valley, 65-44) ... After not scoring in the first game against St. Thomas and in the first half against SIUE, freshman Bryce Johnson scored 17 second-half points to key the win. In a span of one minute, he nailed a three-point field goal (13:58), converted a traditional three-point play with a putback, foul and free throw and nailed another three pointer (12:57) to turn a one-point deficit into a seven-point Cougars lead. A little over a minute later, after SIUE cut the lead to five, he hit another three to account for 12 of CSU's 13 points in a two-minute span ... Senior Coreyoun Rushin continues to fill up the stat sheet for CSU. After not scoring in the first half against St. Thomas, Rushin contributed 11 second-half points, pulled down six rebounds, dished out two assists and led the team with three blocked shots and two steals. Against SIUE, he was the team's leading rebounder with 10 and added a block and steal to go along with seven points. Rushin, a 2017 Chicago Sun-Times All-State, Chicago Public League All-City and Red-West All-Conference performer, transferred to Chicago State from Idaho State. He played in just two games last season as a transfer for the Cougars, gaining immediate eligiblity based on an NCAA Division I Council vote which granted a blanket waiver to allow all Division I transfers to play immediately in 2020-21. After just two games, CSU suspended the season ... Junior transfer Brandon Betson has led the Cougars in scoring in each of the first two games, first pouring in a game-high 22 points on the season-opening win over St. Thomas then followed that performance with 18 against SIUE. He was an all-conference performer at each of his two previous stops, earning first-team All-Central Conference at Daytona State as a sophomore where he had seven 20+-point scoring performances with a season-high 30 and was named first-team IEAC at San Bernardino College as a freshman where he averaged 19.5 points per game with 12 20+-point scoring performances with a season-high 45 points. He also averaged 45.2 percent from the field, including 41.5 percent from beyond the three-point arc.

Tough Task...
Loyola is seeking its second consecutive 3-0 start to a season, something the Ramblers have done three of the last five seasons. Loyola has scored a total of 192 points this season, which is its most through the opening two games of a campaign since 1984-85 when they lit up the scoreboard for 194 points through the first pair of contests. Loyola's home gym, the Gentile Arena, has become one of the most difficult places in the country for opponents to play and the Ramblers bring a 24-game home-court winning streak, the fifth-longest active streak in NCAA Division I play, into Tuesday's game with Chicago State. Loyola has won 31 of its last 36 (.861) nonconference games at home and since the start of the 2017-18 season, Loyola is 56-7 (.889) overall and 34-2 (.944) in MVC action at Gentile Arena. If Chicago State can pull off a victory, the teams last three-game win streak was Nov. 29-Dec. 6, 2018 vs. East-West University (90-67), Eastern Illinois (80-72) and Trinity (84-82), while CSU's last three-game win streak vs. DI opponents dates back to March 9-16, 2013, with consecutive wins over Houston Baptist (71-58), UTRGV (63-55) and Houston Baptist (75-60).

About Chicago State
Chicago State University Athletics is comprised of 15 intercollegiate teams involving over 150 student-athletes that compete in basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, tennis, indoor and outdoor track and volleyball. CSU held memberships in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and NCAA Division II before transitioning to NCAA Division I in 1994. Melvin Bland was the first CSU student-athlete to gain NAIA All-American status in 1974 as a wrestler. Fred Evans became the first black swimmer ever to win a national championship in 1975. CSU's women's basketball team earned a spot in the 2011 Women's Basketball Invitational and CSU's men's basketball team won the 2013 Great West Conference Tournament title and made an appearance in the CollegeInside.com Postseason Tournament (CIT).  The Men's Outdoor Track & Field 4x100-Meter Relay team were 2019 Honorable Mention All-Americans and WAC Champions. Their feat marked the first time the Chicago State's men's track & field program was represented at the national meet. 

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