Box Score The Chicago State men's basketball team (4-11, 0-2 WAC) dropped a 78-61 decision to preseason WAC favorite New Mexico State (12-2, 1-0 WAC) Saturday afternoon at the Pan American Center in Las Cruces, NM. The game was the second in three days against the preseason top teams in the league as the Aggies are the favorite in both the coaches' and media polls while their opponent to open league play Thursday, GCU, was picked to finish second.
New Mexico State struggled from the field early but used a late 7-0 first-half run coupled with an 11-0 run to start the second half to open up what was a back-and-forth affair through the first 20 minutes.
Brandon Betson and Jahsean Corbett got the Cougars going early with a pair of buckets, Betson's a three and the Aggies led 6-5 at the 17:20 mark. Following a New Mexico State score, Corbett made a pair of free throws and Coreyoun Rushin gave CSU their first lead of the game, 9-8, on a jumper.
Betson and Corbett led all scorers with 23 and 26 points, respectively. Both were season highs for both players while the 26 points are the most by a Chicago State player this season.
New Mexico State reclaimed the lead with a pair of free throws and a three to lead 13-9 with 11:16 until half. At that point, the Cougars would go on a 7-0 run with five points by J.J. Harris and a Corbett jumper, and the Aggies were struggling from the field, failing to score for 6:17 but managed to gain the lead back, 19-16, with six straight free throws.
Betson then countered, scoring five straight points for the Cougars and a brief two-point lead, 21-19 with 4:59 remaining. NMSU then went on a 7-0 run for a five-point lead, 26-21, and would outscore Chicago State 11-5 over the last 4:32 to go into the locker room at halftime with a 30-26 lead.
The Aggies forgot about their first-half shooting struggles to open the second half, going on an 11-0 run, hitting 4-of-6 shots including 2-of-3 from beyond the three-point arc to quickly extend the lead to 15, 41-26, with 16:40 remaining to play.
Betson snapped the run with a driving layup but NMSU scored four straight to go up 17, the largest lead of the game by either team, and the game stayed around that mark for the remainder of the contest.
The game marks the conclusion of CSU's second five-game road trip of the season, starting with a victory at IUPUI and concluding against the Aggies. The Cougars are scheduled to return home for a two-game stint Jan. 6-8, hosting Seattle and California Baptist, respectively.
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. 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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