The Chicago State men's basketball team returns home to the Jones Convocation Center following their longest stint away from the JCC this season, five games, and will host the Tennessee State Tigers on Saturday, Dec. 4 at 4 p.m.
The Cougars will play three games at home beginning with the Tigers Saturday (Illinois State on 12/11, Northern Illinois on 12/13), before finishing out the non-conference portion of the schedule with one additional five-game away streak, with games at IUPUI (12/16), Drake (12/19) and Iowa State (12/21) before opening Western Athletic Conference play at Grand Canyon (12/30) followed by a trip to New Mexico State (1/1/2022).
The Series...
Saturday's game between Chicago State and Tennessee State will mark the fourth all-time meeting between the two schools, with the Tigers holding a 2-1 advantage. The Cougars won the initial contest between the two schools, dating back to Feb. 2, 1990, a 63-61 win at Nashville. The only game played in Chicago went to Tennessee State by a score of 93-83. The last matchup between the Cougars and Tigers was on Dec. 6, 2019, with TSU winning by six in Nashville, 80-74. Both
Andrew Lewis and
Noah Bigirumwami played in that game with Lewis playing 32 minutes and contributing three points and three rebounds while Bigirumwami added four points and one rebound in 11 minutes.
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The Cougars dropped its fifth consecutive road game Wednesday at Loyola Maryland after opening the season with a pair of home wins. CSU is currently undefeated at home and winless on the road. The last Chicago State road win was Dec. 4, 2019 at SIUE, a span of 23 games away from the Jones Convocation Center. On the flipside, the Cougars have their last two games at home and a win Saturday would mark their first three-game home streak since the 2018-19 season when CSU won consecutive home games against East-West, Eastern Illinois and Trinity Christian.
Last time out...at Loyola Maryland...
Teddy Bayi Ba Mendeng started his second consecutive game and ranked second on the team with six rebounds at Loyola Maryland and made and attempted season high in free throws attempted (4) and made (2).
Brandon Betson tied for the team lead in scoring with 15 points at Loyola despite playing a season low 26 minutes, nine minutes below his season average going into that game. He also led the team in assists (4) and tied season high with four free throw attempts and assists.
Favour Chukwukelu came off the bench and established several season highs at Loyola Maryland. He played a season-high 29 minutes (previous high was 14) and, after converting only one three-point field goal in the previous six games, was 4-of-8 from beyond the arc for a season-high 12 points. Chukwukelu also had a season high two rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Jahsean Corbett played 40 minutes at Loyola Maryland and tied for the team lead in scoring with 15 and had a team- and game-high 13 rebounds. In the last two games, the freshman has averaged over 35 minutes played, 15.5 points per game and 13 rebounds per game.
Coreyoun Rushin played a season-high 35 minutes at Loyola Maryland and tied a season high with 10 field goal attempts, two made free throws and two steals. He scored in double figures for the second time this season and ranked second on the team with five rebounds against the Greyhounds.
Previously...
Freshman
Bryce Johnson who did not play Wednesday at Loyola Maryland, put together a pair of impressive scoring efforts earlier this season. After not scoring in the first game against St. Thomas extending into the first half against SIUE, Johnson scored 17 second-half points to key the win. In a span of one minute, he nailed a three-point field goal (13:58), converted a traditional three-point play with a put back, foul and free throw and nailed another three pointer (12:57) to turn a one-point deficit into a seven-point Cougars lead. A little over a minute later, after SIUE cut the lead to five, he hit another three to account for 12 of CSU's 13 points in a two-minute span. Then, after being held scoreless in the first half at Pacific, he scored a game-high 24 second-half points on 8-of-13 shooting, including 5-of-9 three-point field goals.
Cougars scoring leader
Brandon Betson was held to a season-low 11 points at UCSB, but still led the team in scoring and has scored in doubles figures every game this season.
Betson was named the TicketSmarter Western Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Week for November 8-14. A junior guard from Hercules, California, he earned the honor leading the Cougars in scoring in their two season-opening wins. He opened the season with 22 points and four assists in a 77-72 win over St. Thomas, then added 18 points and three assists in a 67-56 win over visiting SIUE. On the week, he averaged 20.0 points per game on 14-of-27 shooting (.519). Betson was an all-conference performer at each of his two previous stops, earning first-team All-Central Conference at Daytona State as a sophomore where he had seven 20+-point scoring performances with a season-high 30 and was named first-team IEAC at San Bernardino College as a freshman where he averaged 19.5 points per game with 12 20+-point scoring performances with a season-high 45 points. He also averaged 45.2 percent from the field, including 41.5 percent from beyond the three-point arc.
Senior
Coreyoun Rushin continues to fill up the stat sheet for CSU, leading the team in offensive boards (16) and second in overall rebounds (49, 7.0 rpg). Rushin, a 2017 Chicago Sun-Times All-State, Chicago Public League All-City and Red-West All-Conference performer, transferred to Chicago State from Idaho State. He played in just two games last season as a transfer for the Cougars, gaining immediate eligibility based on an NCAA Division I Council vote which granted a blanket waiver to allow all Division I transfers to play immediately in 2020-21. After just two games, CSU suspended the season.
Chicago State's season-opening win over St. Thomas was head coach
Gerald Gillion's first as a collegiate head coach ... That win also snapped a 28-game Cougars losing streak, dating back to December 2019, an 89-81 win over SIUE in Edwardsville, Illinois ... The game against St. Thomas was the Cougars first action in nearly a year, last playing Dec. 20, 2020, in what turned out to be a nine-game, COVID-shortened 2020-21 season ... The Cougars win over SIUE (67-56) marked the Cougars first two-game win streak over Division I opponents since the 2014-15 season (Feb. 26 vs. GCU, W, 74-70; Feb. 28 vs. Utah Valley, 65-44).
Scouting the Tigers...
Tennessee State enters Saturday's game with a 1-5 record with the lone winning coming Nov. 16 at home against Fisk, 111-56.
The Tigers last scheduled game, Dec. 1 against Georgia State, was cancelled due to COVID-19 contact tracing and various injuries for GSU.
It was announced Tuesday that Tigers freshman point guard Hercy Miller will miss the remainder of the season due to a lower-body injury. He was considered one of Tennessee State's top players and is expected to make a return in 2022-23.
Four Tigers players were named to the inaugural HBCU All-Star Game watch list. The game will feature 24 of the best student-athletes from the MEAC, SWAC, CIAA, SIAC, Tennessee State, North Carolina A&T and Hampton. The four TSU student-athletes selected are Kenny Cooper, Kassim Nicholson, Jalen Dupree and Shakem Johnson. The game will be played during the weekend of the Final Four at UNO Lakefront Arena in New Orleans and is scheduled to broadcast on CBS on Sunday, April 3 at 4 p.m. ET. Â
Last time out for TSU, three Tigers registered double-digit scoring against Southern, as Carlos Marshall Jr. led the team with 14 points. Kenny Cooper, a graduate transfer from WKU, posted eight points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals.
Tennessee State dominated the second-chance points, 19-2, and secured 16 more rebounds than SU, 39-23 ... Tennessee State's scored the initial basket in five of six games ... TSU went to the free-throw line a season-high 33 times against Southern (27-33). Kenny Cooper has multiple steals in three games this season, while securing at least one steal in five of six games.
About Chicago State
Chicago State University Athletics is comprised of 15 intercollegiate teams involving over 150 student-athletes that compete in basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, tennis, indoor and outdoor track and volleyball. CSU held memberships in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and NCAA Division II before transitioning to NCAA Division I in 1994. Melvin Bland was the first CSU student-athlete to gain NAIA All-American status in 1974 as a wrestler. Fred Evans became the first black swimmer ever to win a national championship in 1975. CSU's women's basketball team earned a spot in the 2011 Women's Basketball Invitational and CSU's men's basketball team won the 2013 Great West Conference Tournament title and made an appearance in the CollegeInside.com Postseason Tournament (CIT). The Men's Outdoor Track & Field 4x100-Meter Relay team were 2019 Honorable Mention All-Americans and WAC Champions. Their feat marked the first time the Chicago State's men's track & field program was represented at the national meet.Â
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