Sports Editor
The CSU Bakersfield men’s basketball team won it’s seventh Western Athletic Conference game 71-48 in a rout over last place Chicago State University on Saturday at the Icardo Center.
This was CSUB’s 17th win of the season. The most it has had since moving to Division I.
At the end of the game, CSUB was held back from post game media by CSUB head coach Rod Barnes to discuss with Chicago State coaches and players about the apparent financial troubles that Chicago State is dealing with.
“The reason I am here tonight is both teams got together for a moment to deal kind of with Chicago State’s financial crisis,” said CSUB assistant coach Jeff Conarroe. “We’re in full support of them in what they’re going through and their budget crisis in the state of Illinois. I don’t think the state government has passed their budget and the school is caught up in that.
“The school is about to run out of money so it’s a tight spot for them. That school is a conduit for a lot of the inner-city kids of Chicago to have an opportunity to get an education and get off the streets.”
Chicago State (4-22, 0-9 WAC) is not only dealing with struggles off the court, but losing to CSUB (17-7, 7-2 WAC) gives them its 13th straight loss. The Cougars last win was on Dec 19 against Western Illinois 77-70.
“Tonight our guys really battled,” said Conarroe. “We didn’t shoot the ball as well as we had hoped, but it was a great team effort. Had some guys really step up. (Senior center Aly Ahmed) was huge in the second half. He really played well, fought through his illness and kind of stepped up to the plate.”
CSUB was led by Ahmed who finished with 20 points and nine rebounds.
“This time of the year there is no break, there’s no rest,” said Ahmed, who has been battling the flu recently. “Whenever you can get rest, you get rest and the rest of the time keep working and grinding.”
Ahmed made 14 of his 20 points in the second half.
Ahmed said that he had to be patient and wait for the offense to open up so he could get his chances to score.
“We just kept fighting,” said junior guard Dedrick Basile. “We just kept playing how we play when we got the lead because somebody can come back. It’s happened before.”
Basile had a double-double with 15 points, 10 rebounds and added seven assists.
The Roadrunners will host Utah Valley University on Feb. 13 at 7 p.m. in the Icardo Center.
