On Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, NEIU Campus Recreation’s Men’s Basketball team put up a valiant effort playing against the University of Chicago, ultimately losing 53-83. The game was called early by the referees pausing play at 4 minutes and 54 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
NEIU started the game strong, keeping pace with UChicago and frequently trading points early in the first quarter. However, as the first quarter progressed, UChicago’s superior fitness began to show, which allowed them to pull ahead. By the end of the quarter, UChicago held a 10-point lead (18-28), which only grew as the game continued.
NEIU made multiple attempts to close the gap and kept trading points with UChicago, but the deficit proved too steep to overcome. By the fourth quarter, UChicago’s lead extended to 30 points, which made it increasingly difficult to mount a comeback.
David Sok, a scorekeeper and undergraduate student studying computer science at NEIU, shared his thoughts on the loss with The Independent. “We got outran like crazy, they’re making their shots, and then we are just not contesting them as much,” Sok said. “We got to put more effort in defense.”
Sok showed encouragement when he said, “I think there’s going to be improvement every game as long as: the more they play; the more they train; the more they practice.” In his closing statements, Sok mentioned, “We just got outran—you can’t really change it as much; simple as that.”
The Independent interviewed Isaiah Aguayo, a graduate student in human development and NEIU player sporting the number 33 jersey, for insights on UChicago’s strategies. “I don’t think it was necessarily anything special about their strategy,” Aguayo said. “They have a lot of shooters on their team, not necessarily anybody who can really drive the ball in, so we just got to work better on closing out our defense.”
Despite the loss, Aguayo reflected on his team’s offensive strategies. “We’re starting to run our inbound plays a lot better,” Aguayo said. “So we are excelling in some certain aspects of our game.”
