Columbia, Mo. – Tonight the Columbia College men's basketball team was back in action when they played host to the Park (Mo.) University Pirates in an AMC matchup. The Cougars were able to defeat the Pirates by a final score of 61-60 and improved to 25-2 on the season and 17-2 in the AMC.
Prior to the start of the game, the NAIA national office announced the fifth 2017-18 Division I Men's Basketball Coaches' Top 25 Poll of season. The Cougars, who were ranked third in the last poll, dropped two spots to fifth after going 3-1 since the last poll was released.
Columbia College came out in the first half of the game and were able to take an early 8-5 lead in the first three minutes of the contest. The Cougars continued to push the tempo as the half progressed and were able to push their lead to 22-12 midway through the period. The Pirates battled back and cut Columbia's lead to three with seven minutes to play but a 7-0 run from the Cougars propelled them to a 32-22 advantage late in the half. Park University responded with a 6-0 run of their own to cut the lead back down to four but another late run from Columbia gave them a 40-29 lead at the halftime break. The Cougars went 12-26 from the field in the half and were led by Jackson Dubinski who had a game high 12 points at the break.
In the second half of the game, both sides came out and had a difficult time scoring the ball in the first few minutes of the period. The Pirates did their best to cut into the Cougars lead as the half progressed but Columbia still held a 51-41 advantage midway through the period. Despite being down, the Pirates never let the Cougars get too far ahead and were able to cut the lead to five with six minutes left to play in the game. They continued to play well over the next few minutes and were able to tie the game at 59 with 2:33 left to play. However, Columbia College was able to outscore Park 2-1 in the final minutes to solidify their fourth straight win.
Nathan Biggs led the way for the Cougars as he finished with a team high 14 points to go along with a team high nine rebounds. To go along with Biggs, Jackson Dubinski and Nic Reynolds both finished with 12 points to round out the top scorers for Columbia. In addition, Dubinksi also dished out four assists putting him at 384 for his career which is good enough for sixth all-time on the Cougars assist list. He sits just one assist shy of John Jones for fifth all-time.
The Cougars are back in action on Thursday, February 15th when they travel to Batesville, Arkansas, to take on Lyon (Ark.) College in an AMC matchup. The game is set to start at 7:30 p.m.
