Springfield, Mo. – Caleb Jones scored a career-high 24 points to lead the No. 18-ranked Columbia College men's basketball team to an 85-67 win at Mission University on Thursday in Springfield.
 
With the victory, head coach Tomas Brock earned career win No. 150.
 
Columbia won its fourth-straight game to improve to 23-3 and 11-1 in the American Midwest Conference (AMC), while Mission dropped its second-straight contest and fell to 9-16 and 5-7 in the AMC.
 
Marcelous Phillips added 16 points and six rebounds for Columbia, which shot 51.6 percent (32-of-52) from the field and hit 12-of-14 from the free-throw line in the win. The Cougars outrebounded the Patriots 42-23 and had 12 steals.
 
Mission went on a 13-2 run to gain a double-figure advantage at 21-10 with 12:17 to go in the first half. Jace Eskew came off the bench to can a three to trim the lead to eight, and then a 7-0 run by the Cougars highlighted by a dunk by Jones made it a three-point game (23-20).
 
Jones had six points, including a dunk, during an 11-0 run as Columbia took the 37-29 lead with 2:51 left before half. 
 
Columbia led 39-36 at the break as Columbia shot 51.7 percent from the field. Jones led all scorers with 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting.
 
Jones scored eight-straight points to push the lead to 48-40, and then back-to-back buckets from Adam Sausele made it 53-44 with 16:14 left.
 
Mission trimmed to the lead four, but Columbia responded with a 14-4 run to take the 67-53 lead on a dunk by Phillips with 10:18 left. The Patriots once again got the deficit in single digits (73-64), but a three-pointer by Jones and a lay-up by Max Rieger put game out of reach.
 
Najee Williams (18 points), Jamarian Cato (13), Clifford Barrow (13) and Marcell Perry (11) scored in double figures for Mission, which hit just 7-of-27 from three-point range in the loss.
 
The Cougars host Senior Day on Saturday, February 14, against Central Baptist College with tip-off set for 3 p.m.
 
NOTES: Columbia has won all 15 meetings against Mission … The Cougars shot 50 percent or better from the field for the eighth time this season.