DENVER -- December 8, 2018 -- The Chadron State College men's basketball team fell to 2-1 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play, and 4-5 overall, unable to recover from a cold first half at the home court of the preseason league favorites. The Eagles, who were shooting a conference-best .433 from three-point range headed into the game, were just 1-of-10 in the first half and 4-of-19 from beyond the arc for the evening as host Regis University hit 38 free throws to hold on 81-68 in Denver.

"Regis is a hard team to guard," said CSC Head Men's Basketball Coach Houston Reed. "They spread you out, and they have a lot of guys who can do a lot of different things. We were slow in some rotations. We have to be better defensively and not put guys on the line so much. In the first half, we couldn't get anything to go right. Some of it was leaving plays on the floor. We need to play better. Some of the lack of offense bled into our defense. We have to be tougher and not allow that to happen."

The Eagles actually started off on a warmer note than the halftime statistics would have suggested. They led for nearly all of the first seven minutes, hitting four of their first six shots from the field to take a 10-7 lead. Junior guard Colby Jackson, who led the Eagles with 13 points on 10-of-11 free throw shooting, opened the game with a trey to put the Eagles up 3-0.

CSC's time as the front-runner came to an abrupt close when it was assessed a slew of fouls, beginning at the 14:25 mark. The Eagles went from two team fouls up to nine in little more than three minutes, and the Rangers were already in the double bonus with 6:35 left in the first half, up 25-14. 

Also in that mid-period slump, Chadron State committed seven turnovers to none for Regis. The resulting 20-4 run by the home team put RU up 27-14.

Going into the half, Regis's Christian Little, who led the Rangers with 20 points, launched up an off-balance "Hail Mary" at the halftime buzzer which banked in for the 38-22 midpoint score.

The Eagles came out in the second half with a 14-2 run to close the gap to 40-36. However the Rangers never relinquished their lead, hitting even more shots and knocking down more free throws in the final stanza.

Chadron State was an impressive 21-of-25 from the charity stripe in the second half, making up for some of the disparity in the first. However it was not enough. The Rangers held on to prevail by double-digits for the fourth straight game and move to 6-2 (3-0 RMAC) for the season. 

"I like the way our guys responded," said Reed. "We came out with some juice and some fire, and we really cut into that lead. I'm really proud of the guys for coming out to compete. We need to make sure we give ourselves a second chance to play these guys."

The Chadron State defense held the RMAC Preseason Player of the Year, Jarrett Brodbeck, scoreless in the game with only two rebounds, two shot attempts, and three personal fouls, despite playing 29 minutes. Entering the game he had the sixth-best scoring average in the conference at 18.3 points per game, and led the league with 3.4 three-pointers per game.

Following Winter Commencement ceremonies on Friday evening, the Eagles host Western Colorado University on Saturday following the 5:30 p.m. women's game, and take on Colorado Mesa University on Sunday afternoon.

Since defeating NCAA Division I Air Force Academy 84-64 in an exhibition November 1, and toppling then-fourth-ranked West Texas A&M at home, the Western Mountaineers have gone 0-6 at home, including three conference losses, and their only wins have been against the NAIA's Graceland College and Fisher University.

Colorado Mesa defeated Western, on the Mountaineers' home court last week, then split a pair of home games with the University of Colorado Colorado Springs and Colorado School of Mines this weekend, to tie CSC at 2-1 in league play. The Mavericks are 7-2 overall, with their non-conference loss occurring at St. Edward's University, which is currently 8-1.