River Forest, Ill. - The Concordia University Chicago (CUC) Cougars men's basketball team stayed at home to defend their own court where they took on the Elmhurst Bluejays. The Cougars dominated the court, tallying four players who scored in the double digits and got their first ever program win against Elmhurst with a final score of 82-67.
Inside the Box Score
- Leading the Cougar offense, Jacob Collicott (Lafayette, Ind.) scored 19 points in the weekend game. He also grabbed seven rebounds, had three blocks, and had three steals.
- Sean Beckman (Hoffman Estates, Ill.) was right behind his teammate on the offensive end where he brought in another 16 points for the Cougars. He also grabbed five rebounds.
- Joel Watts (Homewood, Ill.) was a commander of the court, where he not only scored 14 points, he also had nine assists, five steals, and three rebounds.
- The final Cougar in double digits was Kenton Pryor (Hazel Crest, Ill.) who tallied 10 points and five rebounds.
Here's What Happened
First Half
Watts set the pace of the game early where he scored for the Cougars in their first possession.
The Bluejays answered back on their next possession tying the score at two a piece. It was clear it would be an intense battle between the two teams after the first minute of play came off the game clock. The Bluejays pulled themselves ahead by one after a made layup and a follow-up three pointer, where the score was 7-6. Watts was relentless on the defensive end where he got back-to-back steals that resulted in finished layups both times on the Cougar offensive end. The Cougars retook the lead where the score was 10-7.
After a few lead changes due to back-and-forth exchanges of scoring, the Cougars pulled ahead with an eight point run, led by a Carter Langendorf (Aurora, Ill.) layup, Collicott steal and layup, and then a Langendorf three pointer. The score favored the Cougars at 23-17.
Contributing to the Cougar lead, Darrian Williams (Garland, Texas) had a block that was finished on the offensive end with a layup. The Cougars were now up eight where the score was 27-19. The Bluejays were able to score four points to attack at the Cougar lead, but the Cougars regained momentum where they scored six unanswered points to bring their lead to 10. The score was 33-23, where the increased lead would highlight another steal by Watts, back-to-back layups by Pryor, and a layup from Collicott.
Only answered by six more points from the Bluejays in the first half, the Cougar dominance continued on, where a Watts steal led into a Collicott fastbreak layup, Beckman had a mid range jumper, AJ Willard (Germantown, Wis.) knocked down two free throws, and Watts shot a lights out three to end the half.
Heading into halftime the Cougars led, 45-29.
Second Half
The start of the second half the Bluejays knew they would need to attack the Cougar lead right away if they wanted a chance of a win. With that being said, the Bluejays were the first to score in the second half, however Pryor answered with a layup just a minute later. The Cougar lead remained at 16 until the Bluejays scored five points from a made three-pointer and a made layup, making the score 47-31, Cougars The teams would go on to exchange point for point until the Cougars were able to increase their lead to 20. To get the 20 point lead, the Cougars scored eight unanswered points from Beckman, Collicott, and Pryor. The score was now 65-45.
With just 10 minutes to go in the game, the Cougars showed no sign of slowing down. The Bluejays were able to get the Cougar lead down to 15 but a fastbreak play from Williams was just the beginning of another 8-point run for the Cougars, where the team found themselves up 23, their largest lead of the day, where the score was 75-52. Also highlighted in this run was a Williams steal, and three consecutive layups from Collicott.
The last two minutes of the game the Bluejays did what they could in an attempt to comeback but were only able to take off 8-points from the Cougar lead. The Cougars reigned victorious where they defeated the Elmhurst Bluejays for the first time in program history with a final score of 82-67.
What's Next
The Cougars will be on the road for their next Northern Athletic Collegiate Conference (NACC) game against Wisconsin Lutheran. The conference matchup is December 4th and tip-off is set for 7:00 pm. As always, coverage for all things CUC men's basketball can be found at cucougars.com/coverage.
