Cougars give Bearcats a scare
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Columbia, Mo. - The Columbia College Cougars fell to No. 12 ranked McKendree (Ill.) University tonight by a final score of 80-71. The Cougars fall to 6-13 on the season and 0-3 in American Midwest Conference play. The Bearcats improve to 14-5 and stay atop the AMC standings at 3-0.
The Cougars held a two point advantage at the break after shooting 46 percent from the field in the first frame. Columbia and McKendree traded leads three times in the first 20 minutes with the Cougars coming out on top 33-31.
The teams stayed within four points of one another until around the six minute mark when the Cougars turned the ball over to the Bearcats who ran the length of the floor and drained a three, giving the visiting squad momentum to increase their lead to 10 minutes later. Columbia could not recover, pulling within seven but dropping the league contest by nine.
Columbia outrebounded the Bearcats, 38-36.
Jaron Strickland led the Cougars with 20 points tonight. Taylor Evans added 16 points to the mix while Quintin Totta finished with 15. Greg Stegeman also ended in double figures with 10.
The Cougars are idle until Tuesday, January 19th when they head to Hannibal-LaGrange (Mo.) College for a 7:30 p.m.