Conway, Ark. – The No. 3 seed Columbia men's basketball team put together a late second-half charge that fell short in a 78-74 loss at No. 2 seed and No. 15-ranked Central Baptist College in the semifinals of the 2025 American Midwest Conference Tournament Saturday in Conway, Ark.
 
CBC built a 73-59 advantage less than eight minutes to play, but the Cougars went on an 13-0 run to trim the advantage to one possession (73-72) with 2:30 to play. Seth Larson scored six-straight points during the run.
 
Central Baptist won its 11th-straight game to improve to 26-4, while Columbia falls to 22-8. CBC plays at No. 1 seed and No. 10-ranked William Woods University for the 2025 AMC Tournament Championship on Tuesday, March 4.
 
Larson led the Cougars with 18 points, while Harrison Vickers (14), Kai Steinman (12) and Collin Parker (11) also scored in double figures for the Cougars. Columbia hit just 7-of-25 (28.0%) from three-point range and had a season-low six assists.
 
Columbia started the game 1-of-8 from the field and trailed 8-2 in the opening four minutes. A three by Devin Foster pushed the advantage to 15-6 and forced a 30-second timeout. Carson Parker kept the Cougars in the game scoring six of the first 10 points and his jumper with 12:10 left trimmed the advantage to 18-10 with 12:10 to play.
 
CC missed its first eight shots from beyond the arc, but Vickers canned a wing three to trim the lead to 22-14.
 
Columbia trailed 47-31 at halftime after shooting 34.3 percent (12-35) from the field. Carson Parker had eight points on 4-of-5 shooting to lead the Cougars, while Steinman added seven. CBC had a 13-2 advantage in assists in the first half and hit seven three-pointers. 
 
Columbia opened the second half on 9-0 run following a pair of buckets by Beau Washer and five points from Vickers to trim the advantage to 47-42.
 
Larson's jumper with 13:50 left cut the lead to four (55-51), but Brian Alexander answered back with a three-pointer to get the lead back to 58-51.
 
Sage Borbon (22 points), Devin Foster (13), Gabe Johnson (12) and Wade Williams (10) scored in double figures for Central Baptist, which shot 41.1 percent (30-73) from the field and hit 11 threes in the win.
 
NOTES: Columbia leads the all-time series 13-12 and has lost five-straight contests against CBC ... Carson Parker had nine points to finish 20th all-time in program history in scoring (1,108) ... Collin Parker finished as all-time leading scorer in program history with 2,124 points ... Washer pulled down a season-high 11 rebounds and finished his career with 702, fifth most in school history.