Box Score
Parkville, Mo. – Tonight the Columbia College men's basketball team was back in action when they traveled to Parkville, Missouri, to take on the Park (Mo.) University Pirates in an AMC matchup. The Cougars were able to defeat the Pirates by a final score of 72-59 to improve to 15-1 on the season and 7-1 in conference play.
Prior to the game, the NAIA national office announced the second NAIA DI Men's Basketball Coaches' Top 25 Poll of the season. Columbia College is ranked seventh in the latest poll after going 5-0 since the last poll was released on December 5th.
In the first half of the game, both sides came out and exchanged points early to start the contest. However, with the score tied at eight the Pirates were able to break away from the Cougars using a 6-2 run to take a 14-10 lead seven minutes into the game. Neither side could get anything going offensively over the next few minutes but a 22-0 run from Columbia propelled them to a 32-14 lead with four minutes remaining in the period. Park battled back down the final stretch of the half but the Cougars were able to take a 40-28 lead into the break.
Columbia College picked up where they left off in the first half and immediately knocked down a three point shot to start the second. Despite being down, the Pirates never let the Cougars get too far ahead and were able to cut the lead to 10 with 14 minutes left in the game. However, Columbia College extended their lead back out to 15 just a few minutes later and never looked back as they held off Park down the stretch to pick up their 15th win of the season.
Nathan Biggs led the way for Columbia as the senior finished with a team high 20 points and nine rebounds. To go along with Biggs, Nic Reynolds dropped in 15 points, Adam Mennemeyer and Jackson Dubinski both finished with 10 points, and Lucky Ogbomo pulled down nine rebounds to round out the top performers for the Cougars.
Columbia College is back in action on Thursday, January 4th when they play host to the Lyon (Ark.) College Scots in an AMC matchup. The game is set to start at 7:30 p.m. in the Southwell Athletic Complex.
