California Baptist Rolls Chicago State 95-53 in the Cougars Final Home Game of the Season

By: Ethan Hennessy

Chicago Illinois

California Baptist was in second place in the Western Athletic Conference standings entering Chicago on Saturday. They were locked in from the pre-game warmups. Rick Croy and the California Baptist Coaching staff had the team going through various fundamental drills on the court inside the Emile and Patricia A Jones Convocation Center focusing on passing, defensive shuffling, on ball defense, and communication. CBU had suffered a midweek setback Wednesday night in Kansas City to the Roos, and were determined not to get swept on the WAC Midwest Roadtrip as they dominated the Cougars from whistle to final buzzer in a 95-53 win.

California Baptist picked up their 19th win of the season Saturday afternoon in Chicago Illinois. 

California Baptist lead for over 95% of the game, and put on a shooting clinic from beyond the three point line going 18-29 which is good for 62%. The Lancers got hot early, and stayed hot throughout they drained nine three pointers in the first half, and followed it up with nine more in the second half. Farron Flavors Jr. contributed five treys and Brandon Boyd and Milan Acquaah each had four.

Chicago State fell behind by double digits early, and struggled to keep the game competitive. They gave up a big run to the Lancers taking a 46-19 deficit into the locker room. In the second half it was more of the same while they did up their scoring from 19 to 34 in the second half the cougars gave up 49 points in the final home half of the season.

Seemingly nothing went Chicago State’s way in this game. In talking to Lance Irvin head coach of Chicago State he took credit for the loss, but told his team “Fellas we stunk for 40 minutes”. Irvin expressed excitement about getting out on the road for the final three regular season games at Kansas City, Seattle, and Utah Valley saying: “Truthfully we have been playing better on the road. The last We have been able to control the tempo and get the scoring up.”. He went on to say how they were down four at Bakersfield under three minutes, and down only five at Grand Canyon before getting gassed in the final minutes after playing with a short rotation.

California Baptist who got their first ever road win in the WAC in last year’s 79-77 win over Chicago State at the Jones this time was led by their trio of Farron Flavors Jr. (17 points and four rebounds) Brandon Boyd (22 points, five assists, and three steals), and Milan Acquaah (22 points, three assists and two rebounds). Chicago State’s Center Solomon Hunt had himself a good game contributing eleven points, six rebounds, and an assist on 5-7 shooting.