BOURBONNAIS, Ill. --- Olivet Nazarene University used its bench and a 16-3 run over a nearly eight-minute time span in the second half to rally for a 73-69 victory over University of St. Francis in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference opener for both schools at McHie Arena Saturday afternoon.
Antonio Marshall and Ben Worner led the 49-31 scoring advantage off the bench for the Tigers (8-8, 1-0 CCAC) after both regular starters were punished for being late for practice earlier in the week. Both finished with a game-high 18 points.
St. Francis had its own 1-2 punch off the bench in freshman forward Darius Draper (Stagg H.S./Palos Hills, IL) and senior centerJordan Lee (Southeastern Oklahoma State University/Champaign, IL), but itstill left the 18-point gap in the end. Draper produced 13 points and seven rebounds (both season highs), while Lee totaled 12 points.
St. Francis senior center Eric Chesser (Neuqua Valley H.S./Naperville, IL) also helped chip away at the deficit with a career-high 13 points in his fifth start of the season.
Both teams struggled to find their shot for most of the afternoon, but especially in the second half where the pair combined to hit just one three-pointer in 20 attempts. For the game, both teams finished in the 22 percent range from long distance and less than 42 percent from the field overall.
Neither team gained more than a six-point advantage over the first 20 minutes of the contest with St. Francis (9-7, 0-1) waiting until the very end to secure its biggest lead of the initial half taking a 43-37 advantage into the break.
But after shooting 50 percent from the field in the opening 20 minutes, the Saints could not find the net after leading 49-39 with 17:46 remaining in the contest. Over the next 7:30, USF misfired on 10 of its 11 field goal attempts, including all six from three-point range, and hit just 1-of-3 free throw attempts. That enabled Olivet Nazarene to take a 55-52 lead at the 10:16 mark.
From there, it was back and forth with no team leading by more than three points until Olivet Nazarene went up 72-67 with 99 seconds to play on a pair of Brandon Streets free throws to seal the win.
The Saints get right back at it on Sunday opening a busy week with a 2 p.m. exhibition game at Chicago State University. That is the first of a four-game slate over the next seven days. The Saints host Holy Cross College (Ind.) on Tuesday and Purdue University North Central (Ind.) on Saturday with a road game at Judson University sandwiched in between on Thursday.
