SALT LAKE CITY - December 10, 2021 -- The Chadron State College men's basketball team lost its first road game on a cold-shooting Friday in Salt Lake City, falling to the Westminster College Griffins in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play.
 
"We shot ourselves in the foot with 20 turnovers," said CSC Head Men's Basketball Coach Shane Paben. "You're going to have a bad night shooting here and there, but we were just giving the ball away. You give away half the points off turnovers, and it's a dogfight. We can say it's injuries, but we weren't coming out ready to play. The other team took advantage of the situation."
 
CSC was in charge early on a CJ Jennings three to open scoring. The Eagles led for the first six minutes before a dunk by Westminster's senior forward Yusuf Mohamed at 13:31 put the Griffins up 9-8, for their first lead.
 
From there, the Griffins built their lead gradually, finishing the first half at their highest lead to that point, at 37-21.
 
In the second half, the Westminster lead quickly ballooned to 20 points at 43-23, a little over two minutes into play. The Griffins maintained a double-digit lead for the remainder of the game, ending up on top at 72-57. They led by as many as 25, up 70-45 at 2:56 to play.
 
Chadron State gave up 24 points off turnovers in the game, versus 11 for Westminster. The Eagles' 20 giveaways were met by 15 by the home team.
 
CSC shot 33.9 percent from the floor, with 32 percent from the three-point arc. Westminster dominated with 26-of-46 two-pointers, for 56.5 percent, but hit only 3-of-12 from long range.
 
Though he exited with an apparent injury at 18:34 in the second half, Mohamed led his team with 16 points in only 15 minutes. He was 6-of-8 from the field and 4-for-4 from the foul line.
 
Senior guard Matt Kitzman led the Griffins with seven rebounds.
 
The Eagles' KJ Harris was the only player on his team to hit more than one three-pointer. He went 4-for-5 from downtown and 5-for-9 overall to lead CSC with 14 points. He also led the team with eight rebounds.
 
Marcus Jefferson had 13 points, while Teddy Parham, Jr., had 11.
 
"I still feel like we have a championship team," Paben added.
 
The Eagles fall to 5-6 overall, and 1-2 in the RMAC, while the Griffins are now 5-4 (3-0 RMAC).
 
CSC returns to the court on Saturday at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction.