PUEBLO, Colo. – February 22, 2019 – The Chadron State College men's basketball team, fighting for its postseason life on Friday night, came up with its third road win of the season at Colorado State University-Pueblo, winning a tight one, 70-62, at Massari Arena. The Eagles advanced to a tie for the eighth position in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference standings at 10-10 in league, and 12-14 overall.
"Nothing comes easy," said CSC Head Men's Basketball Coach
Houston Reed. "We were finally on the end of the game where we were in the lead and got to make the free throws to win the game, and we did that. But, in getting there, we shot 1-of-14 from three after coming into the game number two in the conference in three-point percentage. Teams have made a good percentage against Pueblo. We thought we could spread them out to get those shots, and we got those shots. They just didn't go in."
The ThunderWolves built an 11-point lead on early three-point shooting, when they went 4-for 8 from beyond the arc in the game's first 12 minutes.
The Eagles'
Jeremy Ruffin quickly scored five points on a pair of free throws and a three-point play, before
Colby Jackson's trip to the line and subsequent trey moved CSC to within a margin of 22-19 with 5:54 left in the first half.
After that
Charles Gavin, the Eagles' senior post, went 3-of-3 from the floor to close out a hard-fought first half, and fellow senior big man
Adoum Mbang added a layup with 51 seconds remaining to break a tie and put CSC up 31-29 at the midpoint break.
Chadron State was down in rebounds to the home team at the under-eight-minute break, but came back to lead the boards by two at halftime.
"We told our guys," said Reed, "if you want to win the basketball game, come out and win the glass in the second half, and they did that."
In the final 20 minutes, CSC shot only 34.5 percent from the field and 0-for-5 from three-point range, yet was 82.6 from the foul line. Mbang led the Eagles with 10 second-half points on 6-of-8 free throw shooting.
The Eagles trailed for only 48 seconds early in the second period, and the final score equaled their biggest lead of the game when Ruffin drained a couple of shots from the foul line in the final seconds.
Five Chadron State men were in double figure scoring at the conclusion of the game.
Colby Jackson led the Eagles with 13 points and five assists. Mbang and
Jaisean Jackson added 12 points. Ruffin had 11 points, while Gavin produced 10.
Diontae Champion's nine rebounds tied for the team lead with Ruffin, while his three steals were a team high.
For Pueblo, freshman Tyson Gilbert led his team in scoring with 23 points on 4-of-7 shooting from three-point range. He was 6-of-10 from the floor overall.
On Saturday CSC tangles with New Mexico Highlands, who downed MSU Denver by a score of 103-69 on its home turf on Friday. The Eagles won 80-69 over the Cowboys on their home floor in Chadron, January 18.
