The Chicago State men's basketball team will play their second of three consecutive home games, welcoming the Illinois State Redbirds to the JCC on Saturday, Dec. 11 for a 2 p.m. tip.
The Redbirds enter the contest with a 4-5 record and are 0-3 away from home but hold a 23-1 all-time record against CSU, including a 4-0 record in Chicago where they last played in 1942. The two teams played last year in Normal, a 91-62 Illinois State win.
The Cougars have won three straight at home for the first time since 2018-19, when CSU won consecutive home games against East-West, Eastern Illinois and Trinity Christian. With a win over the Redbirds, the Cougars would achieve a four-game home win streak for the first time since the 2013-14 season when CSU won five straight at home between Nov. 9 and Dec. 16.
Saturday's game is the second of three consecutive home games following five straight games on the road. CSU will close out the non-conference portion of the schedule with one additional five-game away streak, with games at IUPUI (12/16), Drake (12/19) and Iowa State (12/21) before opening Western Athletic Conference play at Grand Canyon (12/30) followed by a trip to New Mexico State (1/1/2022).
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Dominique Alexander played a season high 31 minutes against Tennessee State, tying a season high with two made free throws and setting season highs with three free throw attempts and three assists.
Teddy Bayi Ba Mendeng made his third consecutive start against the Tigers.
Brandon Betson established season highs with 17 field goal attempts and five rebounds against Tennessee State and tied a season high with two steals.
Noah Bigirumwami recorded his first block of the season against Tennessee State.
Favour Chukwukelu attempted his first free throw and pulled down a season high four rebounds against the Tigers. He also tied a season high with two assists.
Jahsean Corbett was the leading scorer and rebounder against Tennessee State with 17 points and eight rebounds. He has scored in double figures in five of eight games this season and is averaging 15.8 points per game and 10 rebounds per game over CSU's last four games.
Coreyoun Rushin set a season high with five field goal attempts and 15 points in the win over the Tigers. He established CSU career and season highs with five free throws made and eight free throw attempts.
Favour Chukwukelu came off the bench and established several season highs at Loyola Maryland. He played a season-high 29 minutes (previous high was 14) and, after converting only one three-point field goal in the previous six games, was 4-of-8 from beyond the arc for a season-high 12 points. Chukwukelu also had a season high two rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Freshman Bryce Johnson who has not played in the last two games, put together a pair of impressive scoring efforts earlier this season. After not scoring in the first game against St. Thomas extending into the first half against SIUE, 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 put back, 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. Then, after being held scoreless in the first half at Pacific, he scored a game-high 24 second-half points on 8-of-13 shooting, including 5-of-9 three-point field goals.
Cougars scoring leader Brandon Betson was held to a season-low 11 points at UCSB, but still led the team in scoring and has scored in doubles figures every game this season.
Betson was named the TicketSmarter Western Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Week for November 8-14. A junior guard from Hercules, California, he earned the honor leading the Cougars in scoring in their two season-opening wins. He opened the season with 22 points and four assists in a 77-72 win over St. Thomas, then added 18 points and three assists in a 67-56 win over visiting SIUE. On the week, he averaged 20.0 points per game on 14-of-27 shooting (.519).
Betson 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.
Senior Coreyoun Rushin continues to fill up the stat sheet for CSU, leading the team in offensive boards (16) and second in overall rebounds (49, 7.0 rpg). 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 eligibility 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.
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 Cougars losing streak, dating back to December 2019, an 89-81 win over SIUE in Edwardsville, Illinois ... 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) 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).
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). Â 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. In 2021, three different CSU teams earned victories over Big Ten opponents with men's soccer beating Northwestern, women's basketball upending Wisconsin and volleyball, which established a school record 17 wins and hosted a post-season volleyball tournament for the first time in program history, swept Indiana in Bloomington.
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