Columbia, Mo. – This afternoon the third ranked Columbia College men's basketball team was back in action when they played host to the Harris-Stowe State (Mo.) University Hornets in an AMC matchup. The Cougars were able to defeat the Hornets by a final score of 79-67 to improve to 24-2 on the season and 16-2 in the AMC.
In the first half of the game, Columbia College came out and jumped out to an early 9-4 lead in the first four minutes of the half. The Hornets battled back over the next few minutes of the game and were able to go on a 6-0 run to take a 10-9 lead with 14 minutes to play in the half. The score remained close as the half progressed but with Harris-Stowe leading 15-14 the Cougars were able to use a 12-2 run midway through the period to take a 26-17 lead with six minutes left to play. Columbia College continued to push the tempo down the final stretch of the half and were able to push their lead to as many as 10 before taking a 35-27 lead into the halftime break. The Cougars went 11-25 in the half and were led by Adam Mennemeyer who had 10 points in the period.
Columbia College was able to pick up in the second half where they left off in the first and went on a 12-5 run to start period to take a 47-32 lead with 15 minutes left in the game. The Cougars played tough defense in the half and forced the Hornets to take difficult shots as they pushed their lead to as many as 25 points midway through the period. The Hornets did their best to get back into the game and were able to cut the lead to 12 with less than a minute to play. However, that was as close as they would get as the Cougars closed out the game down the stretch to solidify their third straight win.
Adam Mennemeyer led the way for Columbia as he finished with a game high 18 points in the contest. To go along with Mennemeyer, Jackson Dubinski, Steven Holloway, and Nathan Biggs all finished with 12 points while Hank Mathews dropped in 11 points to round out the top offensive performers for the Cougars. In addition, Lucky Ogbomo finished with a career high 17 rebounds.
The Cougars are back in action on Tuesday, February 13th when they play host to the Park (Mo.) University Pirates in an AMC matchup. The game is set to start at 7:30 p.m. in the Southwell Athletic Complex.
