Fulton, Mo. – The Cougar men's basketball team wrapped up the 2015-16 regular season with a 89-64 road victory over league foe William Woods University on Saturday evening. The Cougars, ranked 12
th in Tuesday's latest release of the NAIA Men's Basketball Top 25 Poll, improves to 25-5 overall and 18-4 with the win.
Today's win along with Freed-Hardeman's loss to Missouri Baptist allowed Columbia College and Freed to be given a share of the regular season conference crown. Based on the tiebreakers set by the conference, Freed-Hardeman will claim the top seed in the postseason conference tournament, giving them home court advantage for all games they compete in.
The two teams went back and forth throughout the first half, however, the Cougars ended on a 7-0 run to carry a 48-37 advantage into the halftime break. Columbia shot 48 percent in the half and held a 26-20 advantage on the boards.
Travis Vogt and
Zach Rockers led the Cougars with 10 first half points while the Owls' Trey Mitchell led all players with 15 points.
Columbia extended their advantage to 18 after outscoring the Owls 14-8 over the first six minutes of the second half making the score 62-44. The Cougars didn't looked back from there as they led by as many as 31 on their way to victory.
The Cougars finished shooting 46 percent and outrebounded the Owls 52-40 for the game. The Cougars also forced 13 turnovers, allowing the squad to score 15 points. Vogt matched a career high with 19 points to lead Columbia while Rockers finished with 16 points and seven rebounds.
Nathan Biggs chipped in 14 points and seven rebounds and
Jackson Dubinski rounded out the scoring with 11 points while also pulling down seven rebounds.
The Owls shot 37 percent from the field and were led by Mitchell with 19 points.
The Cougars will return to the hardwood to host the AMC Tournament quarterfinals as the No. 2 seed on Wednesday, March 2
nd against No. 7 seeded Harris-Stowe State. Tip-off for Wednesday's game is set for 7:00 pm on
Bob Burchard Court at Southwell Complex.
