Junior guard James Morgan Finishing a Layup Through Contact SXU Athletics
The Cougars couldn’t finish out the regular season the way they wanted to, losing their last two games against Calumet College of St. Joseph (CCSJ) and Trinity Christian College (Ill.).
Issues with winning games on the road came up once again as it didn’t matter how talented the Cougars were, they couldn’t rally together and win.
The Cougars lost to CCSJ with a final score of 87-80 and lost to Trinity with a final score of 91-68. The Cougars ended the regular season with a terrible road record of 2-12, and ended the season 11-16. It’s not the worst, but it’s still a negative record and doesn’t represent dominance.
After winning against the University of St. Francis back on Valentines day, fans and supporters were convinced that this squad would keep the momentum going. Especially since it was the same day the seniors on the team were honored, it’s hard to imagine them losing again.
But the Cougars disappointed and couldn’t bring themselves another win before the annual CCAC Men’s Basketball Tournament. During the game against CCSJ, we saw junior guard Morgan James go on a scoring frenzy as he recorded a season-high 32 points. James finished shooting 11/15 from the field and 4/5 from three point range.
Senior guard Ashton Atwater aided towards the effort by pouring in 17 points, and senior forward Davion Lawrence posted a near double-double with nine points and 12 rebounds.
The squad played well and shot 46.6% from the field and 45% from three, but CCSJ shot a bit better. Shooting 47.4% from the field and dominated the free throw game, making 25 of their 32 attempted free throws (78.1%) compared to SXU’s 26 attempts.
Their game against Trinity was a completely different story, they lost in blowout fashion and even started the game lousy with a 15-4 score early in the first half. The Cougars never led in this one as the Trinity Trolls maintained the double-digit lead and never looked back.
The scoring was pretty even amongst the team with James leading all scorers again with 15 points, and Lawrence finished with 13 points. Junior forward Marko Tojagic and senior guards Jerry Abushanab, and Ike Nwaobi all finished with 10 points. Abushanab also added seven rebounds to his statline.
Nonetheless, the Cougars still found their way in the CCAC Tournament, clinching the seventh seed. So those two losses have to be forgotten about and the team needs to focus on the task ahead of them, winning the tournament.
The Cougars are heading in as the underdogs and aren’t favored to win the tournament due to the fact that they’re a lower seed, and they won’t have any homecourt advantage throughout the tournament.
For those who heavily follow this team, we are aware that SXU just isn’t a good team when they play on the road, so the Cougars truly have to fight against adversity if they want a chance at success.
In the tournament, it has been revealed that the Cougars will be facing off against the second seed St. Francis Bulldogs. Action takes place in Joliet as the higher seed earns homecourt advantage, the quarterfinals will tip off on February 25, at 7:00 PM.
Let’s root for our Cougars to advance to the semifinals!