After falling behind in the second half, Seattle University held Chicago State scoreless down the stretch and, using their aggressiveness offensively to get to the foul line, the Redhawks made their free throws to earn a 75-67 victory over the Cougars Thursday night in a Western Athletic Conference men’s basketball game at the Jones Convocation Center.
Isiah Umipig (Federal Way, Wash.) led all players with 30 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the field, including 7-of-11 from behind the three-point line, and 7-of-8 shooting from the free throw line. Jarell Flora (Bremerton, Wash.) contributed 19 points and six rebounds in the game, while fellow senior Emerson Murray (Vancouver, Wash.) dished out six assists to go along with four points, three rebounds, and two steals.
“The seniors pulled everything together and got the team back up. We have dealt with these situations before in practice, so we knew what to do. The big part is we trust each other. Our confidence level has gone up over the past couple of games,” Umipig said on the 770 AM KTTH postgame show.
Down 40-29 with four minutes left in the first half, Chicago State worked its way back into the game, scoring 17 unanswered points over the span of six-and-a-half minutes to pull ahead, 59-49, with 11:26 remaining in the second half. Shore Adenekan (London, England) scored four straight Redhawk points, and Seattle U went 9-of-10 from the free throw line to close to within four at 67-63 with five minutes to go.
Umipig hit a three-pointer to cut the Cougar lead to one, and then he converted on a traditional three-point play one minute later to give the Redhawks the lead for good at 69-67. Seattle U went 6-for-8 from the free throw line over the final two minutes to expand its lead as Chicago State missed its final nine field goal attempts of the game.
William Powell (Huntsville, Ala.) did most of his damage from the free throw line as he earned nine points and four rebounds, while Adenekan contributed seven points and six rebounds off the bench. As a team, the Redhawks shot a season-high 55.6 percent (20-of-36) from the field, including 10-of-19 from behind the three-point line, and 78.1 percent (25-of-32) from the free throw line.
Chicago State (4-16, 0-3 WAC) was led by Joshua Meier, who notched a double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds, and Sean Hill, who hit four three-pointers as he finished with 14 points and five assists. Clarke Rosenberg, the team’s leading scorer coming into the game, was held to two points as the Cougars shot 41.4 percent (24-of-58) of their field goal attempts, including 12-of-33 from behind the three-point line, plus they made all seven of their free throw attempts.
Seattle University (10-8, 3-1 WAC) continues the weekend road trip by heading to Kansas City to face Missouri-Kansas City at historic Municipal Auditorium Saturday, Jan. 24, starting at 6 p.m. local time (4 p.m. Pacific time). The game will be broadcast on the WAC Digital Network (www.wacsports.com/watch) as well as on 770 AM KTTH, with Dave Grosby and Gary Hill Jr. providing the audio descriptions on the radio.