Box Score St. Louis, Mo. – This afternoon the seventh ranked Columbia College men's basketball was back in action when they traveled to St. Louis, Missouri, to take on the 19th ranked Missouri Baptist University Spartans in the AMC Game of the Week. The Cougars were able to defeat the Spartans by a final score of 69-57 to improve to 18-1 on the season and 10-1 in conference play.
The Cougars came out in the first half of the game and had a tough time scoring the ball early. They went 1-7 from the field to start the game and found themselves trailing 6-2 four minutes into the contest. Columbia College picked it up offensively as the half progressed and were able to cut Missouri Baptists lead to two midway through the half. They continued to play well over the next few minutes of the game and were able to tie the score at 23 with four and a half minutes to play in the period before taking their first lead of the game just a minute later. Despite being down late in the half, the Spartans were able to go on a 7-2 run to end the half and took a 33-29 lead into the locker room. Hank Mathews had a team high nine points in the half.
In the second half, both sides came out of the locker room and exchanged baskets early in the period. With the Cougars trailing by four, three minutes into the half, they were able to hit back-to-back three pointers to take a 39-37 lead with 15 minutes to play in the game. The Spartans were able to tie the game at 39 on the next possession but another 7-0 run from Columbia gave the Cougars a 46-39 advantage and their biggest lead of the contest.
The Spartans battled back over the next few minutes of the game and responded with a 5-0 run of their own to cut Columbia's lead to 46-44 midway through the half. However, another run from the Cougars allowed them to push their lead to 54-46 with five minutes to play in the game. Missouri Baptist did their best to get back into the game down the final stretch and were able to cut the lead to four but that was as close as they would get as the Cougars closed out the game to remain at the top of the AMC.
Jackson Dubinski led the way for Columbia in this one as he finished with a game high 20 points and added seven rebounds. To go along with Dubinski, Hank Mathews finished with 17 points, Nic Reynolds dropped in 13 points, and Nathan Biggs finished with 10 points and a career high 16 rebounds to round out the top performers for the Cougars.
Today marked a special milestone for seniors Jackson Dubinski and Nic Reynolds as they picked up their 100th career wins in a Columbia College uniform making them the 20th and 21st men's basketball players to join the Columbia College Century Club. The Cougars have gone 100-20 since they joined the team in the 2014-15 season.
The men's basketball team is back in action on Thursday, January 18th when they head to St. Louis, Missouri, to take on the St. Louis College of Pharmacy (Mo.) Eutectics in an AMC matchup. The game is set to start at 7:30 p.m.
