By: Dave Collins, Sports Director
Game: CSC Men's 🏀 vs Westminster College, UT
Where: Chadron, NE - Chicoine Center (No Fans Allowed)
When: Friday, December 11, 6:00 PM
Radio / Stream: 97.5 FM, KQSK stream panhandlepost.com - 5:50 PM
Chadron State will finally begin the men's college basketball season tonight. The Eagles will tip-off against Westminster College from Salt Lake City, UT in an RMAC contest at 6:00 in the Chicoine Center.
Because of the pandemic, CSC's first four RMAC games were postponed and all non-conference games were never played. Two of those games have been re-scheduled for early January.
The Eagles are under new direction this season with Head Coach Shane Paben taking over for Houston Reed, who left shortly after last season to become an assistant at the University of Northern Colorado. CSC was 22-88 in Reed's four seasons.
Paben's roster will look drastically different than what Eagle fans saw a year ago. A dozen players are gone including three key seniors that saw their eligibility expire.
Five players are back including sharpshooter Brady Delimont returning for his senior year, as does his redshirt-freshman brother Gage. Sophomore guard Andre Sepeda showed electric flashes with the ball last season and he'll have a dangerous weapon with flexible scoring big man Jacob Jefferson returning for his redshirt-junior year.
It remains to be seen which newcomers will emerge as the biggest impact-makers early on since the Eagles haven't played a game yet. MSU-Denver transfer Marcus Jefferson should fill one of those spots at guard, and Santa Monica College transfer Teddy Parham Jr was a two-year starter that can shoot the three well. Deion Rhea, a 6'7" forward from Houston, comes in from New Mexico Junior College and is projected as a big, versatile defender that averaged nearly 10 points and eight rebounds last year.
Westminster is off to a 2-0 start despite having to replace all five starters from a year ago. The Griffins won't have Jai Jai Ely to count on tonight for a career-best performance against CSC - last year he dropped 32 points and hit all seven three-point attempts in the Griffins 82-73 win - a loss that sent CSC into a 12-game losing streak and ended the Eagles hopes of a conference tournament berth.
Casper Community College (WY) transfer guard Isaiah Banks has emerged as the early leading-scorer at 14.5 ppg and is distributing 3.5 assists a night.
The Griffins will also lean on guard Reme Torbert, a redshirt last year, who put up 16 points against BYU and 23 earlier this week against Weber State in exhibition contests against Division 1 competition.
An interesting key for tonight will be who handles the paint the best where neither team has a true center.
Fans can listen to the action tonight on 97.5 FM and the KQSK web stream on the Panhandle Post website. Tip off has been moved to 6:00 p.m. since the women's game was postponed due to covid-19 issues within the Westminster program.