Box Score The Chicago State men's basketball team pulled out a thrilling 61-59 victory over the WAC's top team, New Mexico State, Saturday afternoon at the Jones Convocation Center in Chicago. The win snapped a nine-game losing streak and also clinched a spot in the Western Athletic Conference Tournament. The Cougars had lost 17 consecutive games to the Aggies in the all-time series with the last CSU victory coming in February 2015.
Chicago State never trailed in the first half and took a 32-28 into the halftime locker room. The Aggies bridged an 11-0 run from the first half into the second and took their first lead of the game, 33-32, just a minute and a half into the second half. But every time New Mexico State would tie or take the lead, Chicago State responded and, with the game tied 59-59 with 17 seconds remaining,
Brandon Betson converted a driving layup and scored with two seconds remaining and Sir'Jabari Rice's desperation heave was off the mark and the Cougars prevailed 61-59.
The Aggies led only three times during the game and Chicago State responded each time to regain the advantage. New Mexico State's largest lead, three points (59-56), came with under two minutes to play and
Jahsean Corbett scored, was fouled and converted the free throw to tie the game with 1:23 remaining. The Aggies missed a layup and Teddy Bayi Ba Mendeng pulled down the rebound and a CSU missed three point-attempt gave New Mexico State a chance with under a minute to play, but Rice's layup attempt was blocked by Bayi Ba Mendeng who fed the ball to Betson for the eventual game winner.
Chicago State scored 29 second-half points with all of those, with the exception of a Betson three and the final layup, coming from J.J. Harris, who nailed four three pointers, and Corbett who contributed 12 of his 16 points in the second half.
Betson led all scorers in the game with 17 points and the 16 from Corbett and 12 from Harris were the only other double figure scorers for Chicago State. Corbett also contributed nine rebounds and Bayi Ba Mendeng eight and tied a career high with four blocks.
The Cougars controlled the action early and got out to 8-2, 15-4 and 18-6 leads before the Aggies put together a 10-2 run and Chicago State's lead was four, 20-16, with five and half minutes until half. Bayi Ba Mendeng and
Favour Chukwukelu combined for nine points to push Chicago State's lead back to 27-18. Betson's fourth three of the half pushed the lead to 10, 32-22, with under a minute to play but the Aggies closed out the half with a 6-0 run to trail by just four, 32-28, with 20 minutes remaining.
With the win, the Cougars improve to 6-22 overall and 3-13 in the WAC while New Mexico State drops to 23-5 and 13-3 in league play, Chicago State will wrap up the regular season with a pair of road games, March 2 at California Baptist and March 5 at Seattle U, before competing in the WAC Tournament beginning March 8.
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. In 1991, the Chicago State women's tennis team became the first all-black college team to amass an unbeaten season at the NCAA level. 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, also making 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. Chicago State volleyball recorded a historic season in 2021, with Yanlis Feliz becoming CSU's first volleyball All-American and head coach
Tony Trifonov earning selection as WAC Coach of the Year.
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