Preview: Chicago State Men's Basketball at GCU

The Chicago State men's basketball team will open Western Athletic Conference play with two games, on the road, against preseason favorites Grand Canyon and New Mexico State who enter the games with a collective 21-4 record.

The Cougars will open WAC play in Phoenix, Arizona at Grand Canyon at the GCU Arena on Thursday, Dec. 30 at 7 p.m. The conference tilt will be the first for the Cougars since the 2019-20 season after CSU's season was cut short last year due to COVID. GCU holds a 12-2 advantage in the all-time series including winners of the last 10. The Cougars last win in the series was at home on Feb. 26, 2015 by a score of 74-70. Incidentally, CSU swept the season series that year, picking up a 56-55 win in Phoenix on Jan. 31, 2015. The Antelopes are 10-2 entering the contest, including 7-1 at home.

CSU will then travel to Las Cruces, NM to take on the WAC preseason favorite in both the coaches' and media polls New Mexico State on Saturday, Jan. 1, 2022 at 5 p.m. The Aggies were scheduled to face Seattle Dec. 30 but that game will be rescheduled due to COVID protocols so the game against Chicago State will be the conference opener for the Aggies.

Information on how to follow the Cougars below:

Last time out...at Iowa State
Dominique Alexander made his first career start and tied a season high with 33 minutes played. Dating back to the second half at Illinois State, he has attempted and made 16 consecutive free throws (5-5 vs. UNI, 6-6 at IUPUI and 4-4 at Iowa State, no attempts at Drake). He leads the Cougars in free throw percentage (22-24, .917) and would be tops in the WAC but is shy of qualifying based on needing two made free throws per game.

Teddy Bayi Ba Mendeng made his seventh consecutive start, tying season highs with three field goals made and six points.

Brandon Betson, Chicago State's leading scorer, was held under double digit scoring for the first time this season with six points on 2-of-11 shooting, including 1-of-7 from beyond the three-point arc.

Jahsean Corbett has started every game as a freshman and had his third double-double, with 14 points and 11 rebounds, leading CSU in both categories (tying Coreyoun Rushin with 11 rebounds). He established new season highs in free throws made (8) and attempted (13) and tied season highs  in assists (2) and steals (3).

Kedrick Green returned to the court in a limited role, playing eight minutes, after missing the previous four games due to injury.

J.J. Harris played a season-high 19 minutes.

Carlo Marble played a season high 14 minutes and attempted a season-high six field goals and tied a season high with two free throw attempts

Coreyoun Rushin attempted a season high 13 shots and tied for the team lead with a season-high 11 rebounds. He also has back-to-back games with season best three assists and had a season best three steals. He also picked up his first double-double of the season with 11 points and 11 rebounds.

vs. Drake...
Dominique Alexander, making his second consecutive start, set a season high with 12 field goal attempts, including a season-high nine three pointers. He tied a season high with three made three pointers.

Brandon Betson, the Cougars leading scorer, averaging 14.0 points per game, was held to single-digit scoring for the second consecutive game.

Pierce Blount played in his first game of the season, logging four minutes and grabbing two rebounds.

Jahsean Corbett just missed his fourth double-double of the season, pulling down a team-high nine rebounds to go with nine points.

Carlo Marble played a season-high 15 minutes.

Jincho Rivera played in his first collegiate game, playing four minutes, attempting two three-point field goals and picking up one steal.

Coreyoun Rushin has three steals in each of the last two games (at Iowa State, at Drake).
 

Previously...
Brandon Betson scored 15 of the Cougars 27 first-half points in the win at IUPUI, helping CSU through a cold-shooting start. Betson made 5-of-10 first half shots (50 percent) as the rest of the team connected on just 4-of-21 (19 percent). Betson attempted (and missed) just one second-half shot, a three pointer and his 15 points ranked second on the team and he also pulled down a season-high six rebounds.

After not playing in the previous three games, Carlo Marble came off the bench at IUPUI and established season highs in minutes played (12), field goals made (2) and attempted (4), three-point field goals made (2) and attempted (4) and points (6).

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 since Nov. 28 due to injury, 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.

Brandon 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 is the only Chicago native on the Cougars roster. 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.

Milestones...
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) ... Chicago State won three straight home games for the first time since 2018-19 after winning the first three home games of the 2021-22 season ... The road win over IUPUI win was the Cougars first on the road this season and first road win since Dec. 4, 2019 at SIUE (89-81), a span of 24 games away from the Jones Convocation Center (includes two neutral site games).