Editor’s Note: This story has been edited to add updated information to the story. The score of the team’s most recent game as well as their current record and the date of the next game have been added to the bottom of this piece.

The College of DuPage men’s basketball team kept finding the net consistently against Aurora University junior varsity on Nov. 28 at home. The Chaparrals took the momentum against the Spartans and capitalized on their consistent foul trouble. COD extended their win streak to three, beating Aurora JV 89-82 and raising their record to 4-2.*

“Today was a lot of our best basketball,” head men’s basketball coach Joe Kuhn said. “For the first 15 minutes, I thought our defense was tremendous. Our intent was very good. Our positioning was very good. I was most pleased in the first half with our shooting. I thought we shot the ball extremely well. The second half was almost identical. There were a lot of good contributions from a number of guys, and so overall [we had] really good teamwork.”

Freshman forward Braylen Meredith led the team with 19 points and made eight total rebounds. He also notched three assists.

“I feel like my consistency is starting to show,” Meredith said. “I’m starting to get the same amount of points every game, and I hope to keep building on that.”

Sophomore guard John Gray III racked up 18 points and led the team with nine total rebounds. He also picked up three assists.

“We game-planned on defense a lot,” Gray III said. “We spent a lot of time in practice working on it. I feel like tonight, we shut them down and it got us the win. Coach [Kuhn] prepared us really well, and we executed the game plan.”

Freshman guard Quentin Schaffer scored 17 points with three defensive rebounds. He also put up one block. Schaffer said that continuous practice made the difference and gave the Chaps the edge.

“We kind of expected this after a great week of practice,” Schaffer said. “We had a long break, and then we just came out, played hard and got the win. We had a good game plan going into the game. During practice, we watched a lot of film and we were able to stop [Aurora’s] plays.”

Freshman guard Tylon Toliver secured 14 points and led the team with five assists. He also made five defensive rebounds and one block.

“We played defense harder than Aurora,” Toliver said. “We kind of left them open a couple of times, but they left us open way too much. We exploited that any time we could.”

*The Chaparrals took on the Prairie State College Pioneers at 7 p.m. on Nov. 30 in Chicago Heights, Ill. COD stayed neck-in-neck with the Pioneers, but Sophomore guard Jayden Dean made one final layup late in the second half to put the Chaparrals ahead of the Pioneers by one point. In the end, COD won 73-72, extending their win streak to four and improving their record to 5-2.  The Chaps look to claim five wins in a row against the College of Lake County at 7 p.m. on Dec. 5 at Klaas Court.