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OREM — It has been a long time since the Chicago State Cougars have won a Western Athletic Conference men's basketball game — Feb. 28, 2015, against Utah Valley, in fact.
The Cougars were 0-16 since that win.
On Thursday night at the UCCU Center against that same Utah Valley team, Chicago State used a 21-2 run in the middle of the second half to earn a 70-61 win over the Wolverines. Fred Sims Jr. led all scorers with 25 points and the Cougars improved to 1-2 in WAC play and 5-14 overall while UVU drops to 0-2 in WAC play and 8-9 overall.
"As you can imagine, there's not a lot to say," UVU head coach Mark Pope. "Congratulations to Chicago State. They're the one team in this conference who probably had a harder schedule than us and they came on the road and got us."
With UVU leading 38-31 after an Isaac Neilson dunk early in the second half, Sims started the Cougar run with a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to four. It was the start of a 19-point second half for Sims after scoring only six in the first half.
The rest of the Chicago State team jumped on the bandwagon and reeled off 15 unanswered points before a Jordan Poydras 3-pointer broke the run. However, the damage was done and Chicago State led 53-43 with 10:35 left to play.
UVU was able to cut the deficit to three after Poydras hit three free throws with 8:26 to play but it was as close as UVU got.
"We came out really tentative and tight," Pope said. "We didn't shoot the ball well...we got ourselves uncharacteristically slow in a lot of places."
Chicago State went 6 of 8 from the free-throw line down the stretch to seal the win.
Sims Jr. finished 4 of 9 from beyond the arc which was the same amount of 3-pointers that UVU made. Sims also finished with 10 rebounds to record the double-double.
Clemmy Owens V finished with 14 points and Trayvon Palmer had nine points and 11 rebounds to pace a solid effort by Chicago State.
Brandon Randolph and Conner Toolson were the only Wolverines to finish in double figures with 12 and 10 points, respectively.
"We'll see what we have in us," Pope said. "We didn't envision starting this conference season 0-2. My guys are really twisted up right now. Pretty vulnerable right now. We have to find a way to kind of come together as a team, show some toughness.
The Wolverines have lost seven of their last eight games against NCAA Division I teams. The lone win came against UC Riverside on Dec. 28.
UVU will try to break that trend on Saturday night when the Wolverines host Missouri-Kansas City in a 7 p.m. MT tipoff at the UCCU Center.
Kyle McDonald is sports fan who loves the Chicago Cubs and the Utah Valley University Wolverines. He is a communication major at UVU and will graduate in the spring of 2017. Follow him on Twitter at @kylesportsbias
