Freshman guard Alijah Nelson saw his first action of the 2022-23 season and impressed his coach Thursday night with 21 points in COD's 102-82 victory over Indiana Northwest JV at PEC Arena.
 
The victory pushed the Chaps to an 8-7 record heading into Tuesday night's home game against Joliet.
 
Nelson hit 10 of 14 shots and added five rebounds. Teammates Matt Elliott and Drew Gaston each had 18 points, and Finn Walsh (13) and Gerald Tate (10) completed the double-figure scoring in a game that COD never trailed and led by as many as 29 points in the second half.
 
COD was 44 of 88 (50.6 percent) and outrebounded the Redhawks 55-42. Gaston finshed one rebound shy of a double-double.
 
Walsh had a fine overall game with five assists, three steals and seven boards.
 
COD led 51-24 at the break, thanks to its 54.8 percent shooting.
 
The Redhawks never got closer than 11 of the lead.
 
Coach Joe Kuhn says
"The hard part is maintaining focus with a big lead. They got hot and shot the ball well in second half. In the end, it was a good night for us to experience playing with a lead and answering a comeback. We weathered the storm pretty well. All five starters in double figures, we shot better than 50 percent from the floor, committed just nine turnovers and out-rebounded our opponent. Having that effort with our first game after the break is a pretty good night. I thought Alijah was outstanding. He has such great body control and vision. He gives us another scoring threat. Since coming back from the break, we've had very good focus in practice and it was nice to see putting what we've done in practice into tonight's game. We played well outside and inside. And we had a lot of people do some good things. Lots of scoring. Overall, it was a good way to get back after it.''