Chadron St. Chad 10-9,7-6 RMAC

Regis (CO) Regis 10-9,7-6 RMAC

Chadron St. Chad

10-9,7-6 RMAC

Final

Jan. 27, 2024

Regis (CO) Regis

10-9,7-6 RMAC

Score By Periods
Team	1	2	F
Chadron St. Chad	33	22	55
Regis (CO) Regis	33	53	86

Summary
Box Score

Billy Saunders, Regis Athletics

Senior forward Tarig Eisa (#30) scored four points and swatted a career-high five blocks on Saturday.

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | Jan 27 | David Wilson, Assistant AD-Communications

Rangers outscore Eagles, 53-22, in second half to cruise to 86-55 final

DENVER, Colo. — The Regis University men's basketball team closed a home weekend sweep in style on Saturday, dismantling the visiting Chadron State College Eagles over the final 20 minutes to cruise to an 86-55 victory inside the Regis Field House.

With the victory, the Rangers (10-9 overall, 7-6 RMAC) climbed back above .500 on the season and moved into a tie for fifth-place in the RMAC standings with the Eagles (10-9 overall, 7-6 RMAC), just a half-game back of fourth-place Black Hills State. They also avenged a 77-73 loss to Chadron State earlier this season out in Nebraska back on Dec. 16.

"Obviously, we're very happy with the outcomes this weekend. But more than that, I think this was a really important test of our team grit and our ability to stay focused and intense for 40 minutes," said Regis head men's basketball coach, Brady Bergeson. "The first half was a back-and-forth fight. And then in the second half, we didn't allow a possession to go by where we weren't tuned in to what needed to happen. We were committed to holding our stance, to blocking out and really making things hard for them (Eagles)."

HOW IT HAPPENED
Saturday's lopsided final score was not indicative of the jabs throw by the two teams through the opening 20 minutes as neither team held a lead larger than five points and went into the halftime locker rooms deadlocked at 33-33.

With the score still tied at 40-40 at the 17:07 mark of the second half, the Rangers went on a 19-5 blitz over the ensuing seven minutes to balloon their lead to 59-45 nearing the midway point of the half.

After briefly cutting the Rangers' lead down to 11 at 61-50, Regis salted the game away with a staggering 23-1 run — capped by an and-1 opportunity cashed in by sophomore forward Vojin Mastilovic — that gave Regis its largest lead of the game at 84-51.

Chadron State's offense, which entered the weekend third in the RMAC in scoring north of 81 points per contest, was held to a pedestrian 22 points on just 7-for-36 shooting and in the second half.

"I thought it came down to us doing a good job on making No. 22, (Josh) Robinson's life really difficult on the offensive end, which was a priority for us, and we did a really good job challenging their shots at the rim," Bergeson said of the second-half defensive effort. "I thought Tarig Eisa was outstanding and I couldn't take him off the floor. He had five blocks and probably altered another five shots with his rim protection. Our ability to disrupt their offense, challenge at the rim and rebound are what really stimulated those runs."

While the Eagles' offense was suffocated in the second half, the Rangers poured in 53 points on 70% shooting (21-for-30) over the final 20 minutes, led by sophomore guard Chase Mayo Harmon with 17 of his game-high 26 points coming in the final period.

Mayo Harmon was joined in double-figures by redshirt junior guard Eddy Egun with 15 points and junior guard Trey Bryant, who chipped in 12 points off the bench.

Regis as a team finished the evening shooting 48% (32-for-67) from the floor, despite shooting just 3-for-24 (13%) from 3-point range, as the Rangers bullied the Eagles inside to the tune of a 58-20 advantage in points in the paint.

GAME NOTES

Bryant finished one rebound shy of a double-double, grabbing a team-high nine boards from the guard position.
Freshman guard Jalen Brown also flirted with a double-double on Saturday, finishing with nine points and eight rebounds off the bench.
The five blocks for Eisa were a career-high and bumped his RMAC-leading block total to 27 on the season.
Regis continued to feast at the free-throw line, finishing the night 19-for-23 (83%) while the Eagles were just 14-for-29 (48%).

UP NEXT
Regis will look to build off the home stand when it heads back on the road next weekend to square off against Colorado State University Pueblo (7:30 p.m. Friday) and New Mexico Highlands University (7 p.m. Saturday).

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