Kansas City, Mo. – This afternoon the sixth ranked and second seeded Columbia College men's basketball team was back on the court in Kansas City, Missouri, when they took on the 10^th ranked University of Pikesville (Ky.) Bears in the second round of the 2017 Buffalo Funds-NAIA Division I Men's Basketball National Championships. The Cougars, who defeated Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) College in the first round by a final score of 71-59, were unable to get past the Bears in this one as they were defeated by a final score of 56-51.

The Cougars came out in the first half of the game and had a tough time scoring the ball. They started the game making just one of their first nine shots and allowed the Bears to jump out to an early 7-3 lead. Columbia College continued to shoot the ball poorly throughout the first half as Pikeville was able to hold them to just 27 percent shooting in the period. Despite having difficulties on offense, the Cougars played tough defense on the Bears and found themselves trailing just 30-21 at the halftime break.

In the second half of the game, Columbia College came out of the locker room looking to run at the Bears. They pushed the tempo over the first few minutes of the half and were able to cut Pikeville's lead down to just five points with 15 minutes remaining in the contest. However, the Bears responded quickly to the offensive surge by the Cougars and were able to score on their next two possessions to extend their lead back up to nine midway through the period.

Columbia College continued to battle in the game and were finally able to tie the score at 49 with 41 seconds remaining after six straight points from Preston Whitfield. However, that was as close as they would get in the game as the Bears were able to close out the contest on a 7-2 run to solidify a spot in the quarterfinals of the National Championships.

Columbia College was led by Nathan Biggs who finished with a team high 12 points in the contest. In addition to Biggs, Jesse Brown finished with eight points and Preston Whitfield had seven points to round out the top performers for the Cougars.

With the win, Pikeville will advance to the quarterfinals of the 2017 Buffalo Funds-NAIA Division I Men's Basketball National Championships where they will take on the top ranked and number one seed Louisiana State University-Alexandria Generals. The Generals are a perfect 33-0 on the season including a first round 104-80 win over Science and Arts (Okla.) and a second round 81-61 victory over Westmont (Calif.) College.

This marks the end of the 2016-17 season for the Columbia College men's basketball team. The Cougars finished the year with a 27-6 record on the season including a 19-3 mark in conference play.