Feb. 14, 2017 – The battle for the River Forest Rivalry Cup resumed tonight as the Cougar men's basketball team traveled down Division Street to the Igini Sports Forum to take on the Dominican Stars. The Cougars were looking to sweep the season series against their crosstown rivals, but the Stars got hot over the final 10 minutes after CUC led for much of the night, and Dominican took the rematch by a final score of 87-81.

The Stars got off to a quick 6-2 on consecutive threes by Isaac Moore, but Kris Claybon's lay-in and a lane jumper and three by Israel Dosie gave the Cougars their first lead of the night. The game then settled into a back-and-forth for a while until Dosie's second three of the game gave the Cougars a 19-13 lead and forced the Stars to call timeout.
Dominican rallied with the next four points, but Mitch Pelissier answered with a layup and a three around a Claybon layup (off Pelissier's pass), and the Cougars expanded their lead to 26-17 at the midway point of the half.

After a second DU timeout, Pelissier made it a 9-0 run before the Stars began to climb back into the game. Threes by Ben Walker and Josh Mayberry pulled the Stars back to within three at 32-29, but the visitors then went off for another run of nine unanswered points. Rodrigo Nava hit a three, and Pelissier added a layup off a coast-to-coast run. The Stars chipped away in the final few minutes, but another Pelissier score and a jumper by Jarek Hotwagner gave Concordia-Chicago a 48-39 lead at the break.

Pelissier had a monster half of 20 points on 9-11 shooting, but the Cougars' shooting was solid overall. They hit 19 off 33 overall and hit on six of nine from outside the arc.

The start of the second half saw the Cougars match the pace of the Stars. Pelissier began the scoring with another inside move, and Kyle Hoffman hit from long range to put the lead at 11. The CUC lead was at 59-49 with 14 minutes left when the Stars began to rally. Kevin Mack and Mike Lizak nailed threes, and Dominican finally pulled ahead when Lizak hit a second three for a 64-63 lead.

Once again, the game see-sawed for a few minutes as Pelissier and Dosie kept the Cougars in the hunt. CUC took its final lead at 76-74 when Hotwagner stole the ball off a Stars' rebound and fed a streaking Pelissier for a layup.

Dominican made the big plays over the next few minutes to take this decision. Robertson hit a short jumper to propel DU into the lead for good. Then, after the Cougars missed a shot, the Stars worked the shot clock down and were denied on a shot after Nava's seventh block of the game. The Stars captured the loose ball and launched a three-ball that missed the rim entirely. However, Mayberry alertly caught the ball in mid-air and redirected it into the basket as the shot clock expired. Pelissier added his final points of a 33-point night, but it was not enough as the Cougars fell 87-81.

Pelissier's 33 came on 15-25 from the field, 3-7 from threes. Dosie added 16 on 7-11 from the field (2-3 on threes) and Claybon scored 15 to go with five boards. The Cougars shot 36 percent overall in the second half but were just 2-11 from downtown after a brilliant 6-9 in the first half.

All five DU starters scored in double figures, led by Mayberry's 18. Robertson finished with 14 points but also had a huge 13 rebounds. The Stars shot 39 percent in the second half but were 7-23 on their threes.

Dominican's win narrows the Concordia lead in the River Forest Rivalry Cup series to five points (40-35). The Cougars will return home to host Concordia University Wisconsin on Saturday at 4:15 p.m. for Senior Day.