The College of DuPage men’s basketball team nearly completed an unexpected late comeback attempt against Bryant & Stratton after the Bobcat’s fell into foul trouble and the passing lanes started to open late in the second half. The Chaparrals would go on to lose 90-82 after a crucial turnover during COD’s last possession.

COD fell behind early after giving up a 21-5 run to start the first half of the game. The Bobcats’ full-court press and traps lead to COD’s 13 turnovers in the first half. With 6:16 left in the first half, the Chaparrals fell behind by 26 points and failed to take the lead at any moment in the game.

The Chaparrals made the Bobcats earn every point in the first half and forced them to make contested three-pointers. The Bobcats shot the lights out after finishing the first half 11/24 from the three-point line and totaled 17 made 3-point field goals.

“It’s hard to win a game when you fall behind as far as we did [in the first half],” said head men’s basketball coach Joe Kuhn. “We battled back and started to make some shots and made it a ball game. We got to a point where we had an opportunity to catch them, and that’s all you can do at that point. They started the game really hot and made 11 three-pointers in the first half and just kept shooting them.”

With 2:06 left in the second half of the game, COD managed to cut the Bobcat’s lead to eight points on some hot shooting and went on a 26-4 run. The Chaparrals rallied to shoot 52% in the second half after a cold opening that saw them make only 24% of their shots in the first half. 

After multiple missed free throws from Bryant & Stratton off intentional fouls by COD, the Chaparrals cut the lead to four with 13 seconds left. After inbounding the ball from their own side of the court with zero timeouts left, COD’s guard Jayden Dean dribbled the ball into a defender’s foot to turn the ball over and give away possession to erase all hope for a comeback.

COD’s guard Tylon Toliver finished the game with 16 points, nine rebounds and five assists. In addition, freshman guard Greg Strong played a big role in the comeback attempt after finishing the game with 15 points, four rebounds, and three assists. Strong believed that once Bryant’s shot-making “magic” started to fade, his team was able to find a way back into the game.

“For the first 35 minutes of the game, we started off slow and didn’t play with any type of urgency,” said Strong. “In the last five minutes of the game, something clicked, and we started knocking down shots. [Bryant] came out making everything but once their magic stopped working, that’s when we went on a run and almost came back.”

Freshman guard Ben Zielinski finished the game with 13 points, five rebounds and three assists.

“I think if we had came out ready to play from the start, we could’ve won that game,” said Zielinski. “In the last five minutes, we started playing as hard as we could and stopped playing for ourselves and played as a team.”

The Chaparrals would go on to lose 90-82 and fall to a 13-10 record for the season. COD will host Harper College on Jan. 30 at COD.