PUEBLO, Colo. – Colorado State University Pueblo men's basketball second-half rally here Thursday evening fell short as the ThunderWolves suffered a heartbreaking 66-62 loss to Chadron State in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference action at Massari Arena.
With the loss, the Pack snapped its five-game homecourt win streak and dropped its record to 7-2 overall on the season and 2-1 in the RMAC, while Chadron State improved to 5-5 overall and 2-1 in the RMAC. The loss also snapped a three-game winning streak for the Pack.
The Pack, who was seeking its first 8-1 start to the season since 2003-04, trailed by 16 at the half and was down 59-47 with 6:20 left in the game, before the Pack outscored the Eagles, 13-1, over the next four-plus minutes to pull within 62-60 following a 3-pointer by fifth-year senior guard
Brevin Walter (Las Vegas, Nev./South Dakota Mines) with 1:53 left in the game.
Following Walter's trey, CSC pushed its lead to 64-60 on its next trip down the court on a dunk by Julio Phipps with 1:26 left, but the Pack answered right back with two free throws by Walter with 1:12 left to cut CSC's lead to 64-62.
On the Eagles' ensuing possession, Zach Smith missed a shot in the paint and senior forward
De'Shaun Cooper (San Diego, Calif./Balboa School) collected the rebound with 24 seconds left. On the Pack's trip down the court following Cooper's rebound, Walter's jump shot in the paint was short and the Eagles' hauled in the rebound and capped the scoring with two free throws from Zy Wright with two free throws with 9.4 seconds left. Wright's two free throws gave Chadron a 66-62 lead.
Walter paced the Pack with a season-high 18 points, while redshirt sophomore guard
Jaden Kennis (Windsor, Colo./MSU Denver) added 13 points, including a highlight dunk on a drive to the basket with 13:14 left in the game. The third double-digit scorer Cooper as he tallied 12 points and 10 rebounds for his second double-double this season and third career double-double.
The Pack outscored Chadron State 40-28 in the second after the Eagles held a 38-22 lead at the half. In the opening half, the Pack shot 28 percent from the field, 17 percent from the 3-point line and turned the ball over 10 times that led to 16 points for the Eagles. The Pack is now 0-2 on the season when trailing at the half.
The Pack opened the second half by scoring 10 of the first 12 points to cut CSC's halftime lead to 40-32 just five minutes into the half. The run began with a trey from senior guard
Armon Muldrew (Perris, Calif./San Bernardino Valley) and was capped by a Kennis trey.
Chadron, though, responded with a 19-11 run over the next eight minutes to push out to a 59-43 lead with 7:02 left in the game.
From that point, the Pack mounted a comeback as they used a 12-1 run to pull within 60-55 following a free throw by Kennis with 3:24 remaining in the contest.
After Phipps hit two free throws 17 seconds later to give the Eagles a 62-55 lead, the Pack used two Walter free throws, followed by his trey 1:53 left to pull within two points at 62-60 with 1:53 left.
The Pack opened the game by scoring five of the first seven points to hold a 5-2 just 99 seconds into the game. The Eagles responded with a 13-2 run to push out to a 15-7 lead with 13:03 left in the opening half.
After the Pack scored nine of the next 11 points to pull within 17-16 with 10:34 left in the first half, the Eagles scored 18 of the next 22 points to push its lead to 35-20 with 3:02 left in the half.
Cooper stopped the Eagles' run on a dunk with 2:38 left. CSC would score the final three points of the first half to hold its 38-22 halftime lead.
Wright led the Eagles with 24 points, including going 10-for-10 from the free-throw line. In addition to Wright, Phipps added 17 points off the bench, while Jalen Thomas tallied 10 points, four assists, and four steals in the win.
For the game, the Pack shot 38 percent from the field and 29 percent (7-for-24) from the 3-point line, while Chadron State shot 37 percent from the field and 27 percent (4-for-15) from the 3-point line.
The biggest difference in the game came at the free throw as Chadron State was 18-for-20 (90 percent) at the line, while CSU Pueblo was just 13-for-18 (72 percent) from the line, including a 9-for-14 effort from the line in the second half. Chadron State entered the game leading the RMAC in free throw shooting at 77.9 percent.
CSU Pueblo held a 41-35 edge on the boards as along with Cooper's 10 rebounds, freshman forward
Jake Lafferty (Bruner, Mo./Sparta) added six boards and Muldrew had five boards and four assists.
The Pack cut down on their turnovers in the second half, finishing with just 14 in the game, including just four after halftime. Chadron State committed 10 turnovers, including nine in the second half that led to six Pack points.
The Pack had 15 assists and blocked four shots, while Chadron had 10 assists, eight steals and three blocked shots.
CSU Pueblo will look to rebound this coming Saturday, Dec. 14 as they host South Dakota Mines for a 3 p.m. RMAC contest at Massari Arena. The Hardrockers are 1-10 overall and 1-2 in the RMAC following its 60-54 loss Thursday at Colorado Christian.
