Editor’s note: this story has been edited to fix the names of two of the quoted players. The last name of one of the players was misspelled and a suffix was missing from another’s name. 

The College of DuPage men’s basketball team was defeated by the Lancers 75-66 after Lake County shot an impressive 54% from the field to snap COD’s four-game winning streak.

“This was definitely not our best effort tonight. I thought we were completely out of our offensive rhythm partly due to [Lake County’s] defensive effort,” said head men’s basketball coach Joe Kuhn. “[Lake County] did what they wanted to do offensively, and their will was stronger than ours. Right now, we’re just so inconsistent with how we run our offense, move the ball, and our defensive effort.” 

Despite the tough loss, sophomore John Gray III finished the game with a team-high of 17 points and two assists. Gray was unsatisfied with the team’s performance after the game and said the Lancers just wanted the win more than them.

“As an individual, I didn’t do enough and could’ve played better,” Gray III admitted. “As a leader of the team, I could’ve played better defensively and led the team more. We just can’t let this loss affect us too much and have to try to correct our mistakes.”

Although COD managed to cut the Lancer’s 12-point lead to three points, the Chaparrals failed to maintain their offensive rhythm late in the second half. COD finished the game with 13 turnovers and shot 36%from the three-point line.

Freshman Braylen Meredith found his rhythm in the second half and finished the game with 14 points, seven rebounds and an assist.

“We just didn’t come out to play as a team,” said Meredith. “We weren’t playing defense and tried to make a run at the end, but we just didn’t have enough in the tank. I’m starting to feel a little more comfortable [on the court] and as a team, we just have to keep on building. Games like these make us better for later on in the season.”

Freshman Tyron Toliver finished the night with 10 points, four assists, and a rebound. Toliver believes that the Chaparrals beat themselves and looks forward to improving as the season progresses.

“I thought we let the game slip away from us at the end of the game,” said Toliver. “It was really on ourselves that we lost that game. I thought I played okay in this game, but I need to play better. This game definitely affected our team’s mindset and chemistry, but we just need to bounce back and put it all together as a team.”

The Chaparrals fall to 5-3 and will take on McHenry County College at COD at 7 p.m. on Dec. 12.