ROCKFORD, ILL. – The Concordia University Chicago men's basketball team traveled to take on the Rockford University Regents for the first time this season, pulling the 83-82 underdog victory in yet another buzzerbeater fashion.
INSIDE THE BOX
- Jacob Collicott (Lafayette, Ind.) led the charge for the Cougars with 31 points, six rebounds, five steals, and three assists. Collicott drained the game winner buzzer beater as just one of his two threes from the night.
- Sean Beckman (Hoffman Estates, Ill.) followed behind with 12 points, four rebounds, and two assists while shooting 67% from deep.
- Aaron Brown (Joliet, Ill.) tallied 11 points for the Cougars while adding in five rebounds and two steals.
- Darrian Williams (Garland, Texas) was the last of the Cougars to score in double-digits with 10 points while adding in four rebounds, two assists, and one steal.
HOW IT HAPPENED
FIRST HALF
The Cougars struck first after winning the tip and a feed to short corner for Brown would put the Cougars on the board. An 11-0 run for the Regents would leave the Cougars in a deficit before a lone free throw from Brown would break their dry streak. Behind by ten, the Cougars needed to find some momentum and a jumper in the paint from Tallis Lowery () would serve as the starting point. An offensive board putback for Brown would bring the Cougars within single-digits of the Regents.
Despite going back-and-forth with the Regents, the Cougars would struggle to score consecutive buckets until a layup from AJ Willard (Germantown, Wis.) followed by a steal and fastbreak layup from Willard would give them their first consecutive points of the day. Another layup from Willard would mark three consecutive baskets for the Cougars and cut their deficit down to five points.
A 5-0 run for the Regents would once again leave the Cougars trailing by double-digits, but A three from Williams, a three from Collicott, and back-to-back layups from Collicott would make it a one point game. The Cougars would take their first lead of the game off a pair of free throws from Collicott to go up by one, but a retaliation pair from the Regents would leave the Cougars trailing by one. A three from Beckman would once again put the Cougars up by two with under two minutes to play.
A pair of free throws and a three from the Regents would give them the lead to close the half, but the Cougars had momentum on their side after sinking a pair of free throws to close things out.
SECOND HALF
The Regents struck first in the second half, but a quick three from Williams would level the score back at 41.
After going back-and-forth, for the first half of the final 20 minutes, the Regents would jump back out to as much as a ten point lead. The Cougars would score their next 7 points off of free throws before a jumper from Collicott would break the charity stripe streak. As the Regents jumped out to a 12 point lead, a triple from Beckman would drop things down to single-digits before another stretch of free throws would put them back within six. In the final two minutes of the game three sets of free throws from Collicott would level the score with 14 seconds to play.
After a Rockford timeout, the Regents would find a jumper in the paint to take the two point lead with 2.7 seconds remaining where the Cougars would take two consecutive timeouts to regroup for their baseline heave. With one chance for redemption, Beckman inbounded the ball to Collicott at half court where a few dribbles brought him into a deep three range where a last second shot would secure the win for the Cougars.
"These guys come in everyday and put the work in, they deserve wins like this," Head Coach Rashaan Surles said. "Grind it out, team efforts. I'm extremely proud of this group and the strides that they continue to make."
The Cougars face a bye week this weekend and will be back in action next Wednesday as they head to Aurora University for their second matchup of the season. Tipoff is set for 7:00pm and coverage can be found at cuocugars.com/coverage.