Paxton Ritchey-CSC Sports Information
KANSAS CITY – Darrius Miles and Dalton Peterson both scored 18 points, with Peterson hitting six threes, as Chadron State men’s basketball defeated Ottawa University 83-67 at the Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri.
The win brings Chris Francis’s group back to a .500 winning percentage at 2-2 overall with a second consecutive 1-1 weekend. The Eagles will have their home opener this upcoming Friday, November 22, against Sioux Falls.
In Friday’s win, Chadron State shot 49 percent from the field, 34 percent from three and 78 percent from the line. Peterson led the effort from beyond the arc, hitting 6 of 10 three-point attempts to score a season-high and finish two points off his career-high.
Miles, a 6-foot-11 UT Arlington transfer, went to work inside, finishing 8 of 12 from the field, recording five rebounds and a block, and personally scoring the first nine points of the game.
Julio Phipps recorded 10 points while shooting 80 percent from the floor to finish in double figures for the second straight game. Jalen Thomas finished with nine points and six rebounds. Point guard Zach Smith had eight points and seven assists, the most assists in a single game by a CSC player this season so far.
Defensively, CSC totaled up eight steals (including two apiece from Peterson, Phipps and John Jenkins) and three blocks. Ottawa finished with 10 assists and 11 turnovers.
On offense, the Eagles finished with a season-high 18 assists and a season-low 14 turnovers. Their .492 field goal percentage was CSC’s best mark of the season, beating out the .455 percentage from their earlier win over Texas A&M-International. All that helped offset Chadron State losing the rebounding battle for the first time all season, as the Eagles finished with 36 boards while their opponents had 45.
Chadron State asserted its will early, taking a 9-0 lead courtesy of Darrius Miles, who scored on back-to-back dunks before hitting a three-pointer and jumper to stake Chadron to a lead right off the bat.
With Chadron State up 13-4, the Eagles caught fire from three-point range as Peterson hit three three-pointers and Trey Harris hit another to put CSC up 25-7 after nine minutes of game time. Although Ottawa closed the deficit to 10 points at 41-31 for halftime, Chadron State led by double digits for the final 14:17 of the first half.
Ottawa trimmed the lead to just five by scoring the first four points of the second half to make it 41-36, but Peterson answered again, hitting a three, getting a steal at the other end and dishing a pass to Zach Smith for an and-one fastbreak layup. Smith made the free throw to put CSC up 11.
With CSC up eight, 60-52, with just over 10 minutes to go, Zach Smith kickstarted a scoring run with a four-point play after he was fouled on a made three-point basket. That was the first four points of a 12-0 scoring run for CSC, as Miles made two baskets while Treyson Neff and John Jenkins each made one to give the Eagles their largest lead of the night at 72-52. The Eagles led by double digits the rest of the way.