Men's Basketball Stumbles in Season Opener

(Chicago, IL)-- The Cleary Cougar men's basketball team was on the road to Chicago Thursday, as they took on the Cougars of Saint Xavier University in each team's first game of the season.

After a Saint Xavier basket, Trevor Viau score the team's first points of the season on a three pointer.  Both teams would struggle to score, but Saint Xavier would get the offense going first, as they built a 17-8 lead just past the halfway mark of the first half.  A Bennie Crenshaw Jr. free throw, followed by a Derrick Miller jumper would cut the Cleary deficit to six points.  Two possessions later, Jacob Mueller would score a layup, and Cleary found themselves only trailing by four points.  Saint Xavier would answer the Cleary run with a run of their own, and with 6:06 to play in the half, SXU led by double-digits.  Cleary would fight back down the stretch, thanks in part to a pair of Trevor Viau free throws, and a Nick Ellis dunk.  After Chaz Cobbs Jr. made a layup to cut the deficit to seven points, Saint Xavier converted an and-one on the other end.  Trevor Viau would connect on a jumper, followed by a pair of free throws with less than a second to play from Nick Ellis to cut into the Saint Xavier lead, and the two teams went into the half with the score 40-35 in favor of the hosts.

Jacob Mueller would get fouled on a made dunk, made the resulting free throw, and the Cougars trailed by two points after their first possession of the second half.  After trading buckets, Cleary would get the stop they needed, and then drew a foul on the other end, where Jacob Mueller connected on both free throws to tie the game at 47-47.  After another stop, Derrick Miller scored on a layup to give Cleary the lead just five minutes into the second half.  Saint Xavier would answer to retake the lead, but Cleary would come back once again.  Nick Ellis hit on a pair of free throws, followed by an Isaiah Bailey jumper to make it 57-54.  After Saint Xavier hit a pair of free throws, Isaiah Bailey connected from deep to make the score 60-56.  SXU would storm back once again to retake the lead.  With less than seven minutes to play, Isaiah Bailey made a free throw to tie the game at 67-67.  SXU would finish the game strong, as they built a four point lead with just over two minutes to go in the game.  A pair of Bennie Crenshaw Jr. free throws would cut the deficit to two points with 1:44 to play, but that would be as close as Cleary could get down the stretch, as Saint Xavier held on to win 82-76.

Trevor Viau led the Cougars with 14 points and 6 rebounds in his Cleary debut.  Jacob Mueller added 12 points and 7 rebounds, while Chaz Cobbs Jr. had 12 points off the bench.  Nick Ellis was the final member of the team to reach double-digit scoring with 10 points and 7 rebounds.

The two teams combined for 101 free throw attempts in the game and 67 personal fouls called.

The loss drops Clearys record to 0-1 on the season.  The Cougars will be back in action next Saturday, November 8, when they travel to Michiana to take on the Goshen College Maple Leafs.  The game is scheduled to begin at 3:00 PM.