The College of DuPage Chaparrals played host to the Lake County Lancers in what was a close game through the first 20 minutes, up until COD pulled ahead with help from Adyn McGinley towards the end.
Braylen Meredith won the tip for the Chaps, which led to the first points coming from a Meredith midrange push shot after grabbing the offensive board from a Payton Moore missed three. After a few scoreless possessions for both squads, McGinley found Greg Strong in the right corner for three.
The Lancers of Lake County were scoreless for the first 4 minutes of the game but found their footing later in the first half. DuPage got themselves up eight points on Lake County thanks to a couple of 3-pointers by Meredith.
The Lancers fought back to get within a basket (14-12) after going on an 8-2 run. Meredith found himself in early foul trouble by having 2 with still 7 minutes in the first half, which led him to have coach Joe Kuhn cut some minutes from his playing time. With Meredith out, the Chaps’ interior defense was being pressured, which led to easy layups and offensive rebounds that led to more points for the Lancers. Lake County took the lead for the first time at the 2:02 mark of the first half from 2 free throws by CLC player Emmanuel Willoughby.
The Chaps took back the lead on the next possession thanks to a 3-pointer by Ramone Enis. McGinley ended the point scoring for the half with a corner three from the left side to go into the locker room with a 5-point lead and a score of 39-34.
“I just have to make smarter decisions, you know; following down the court 100 feet from the basket isn’t the smartest decision,” said Meredith.
The College of DuPage was 6-2 before this game and is coming off three straight wins where they beat their opponent by 15+ each game (89-74, 94-66, 91-71). For the Visiting Lake County Lancers, they are 5-3 and are coming off back-to-back wins against Olive-Harvey College (82-78) and North Central College JV (85-72).
Right out of the break, COD caused a turnover, which led to a McGinley push shot for the basket (41-34). The Lancers responded by going on back-to-back trips down the floor, ending in a basket each, to get within 3 points (41-38). McGinley made a 3 (46-40), which made the Lancers call a 30-second timeout at the 14:46 mark in the second half. After a couple of possessions of traded baskets, Strong drove up the baseline and made the tough up-and-under layup (53-46).
The Lancers called another time-out right after in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Out of the timeout, McGinley went coast to coast and finished the layup with an and-one opportunity. McGinley made the free throw. The next Chaparral possession, McGinley made a three from the top of the key to widen the lead to 11 (58-47). DuPage was on guard for a Lancer’s possible comeback, but the Chaps finished the game off before Lake County could do so.
“I thought our defense got us some good stops; offensively, we moved the ball better [than the first half], which opened up the lead,” said Coach Rahn.
McGinley had a team-high 25 points, and he scored 19 of them in the second half alone and scored 15 of COD’s 20 points within a 7-and-a-half-minute span.
“I think my teammates got to the right spots and kicked it out when they needed to and went from there, played well all around, McGinley said”
DuPage continued their win streak a couple of days later on Dec. 6 by defeating Aurora University JV with a score of 77-76. COD has four games in six days between Dec.12 and Dec. 18, where they look to end the year on a hot streak.
