Spring Arbor University's Men's basketball team took a trip
to the Upper Peninsula to take on the GLIAC's Northern Michigan Wildcats and
almost got out of there with the win. But the Cougars fell just short as NMU's (2-1) Matt Everson's layup with
3 seconds to play gave the Wildcats a 2 point win over Ryan Cottingham's
Cougars. The loss was Spring Arbor's
fourth in a row to put their win loss record at 3-5.
The Cougars were led by DJ Baisden and Chris Bellamy with 24
and 21 points respectively. Matt Howe
scored 16 points, and Willie Pickvet knocked in 15 for the Cougars. Matt Van Pelt scored 4 but dished out 9
assists, and Caleb Byers chipped in 2 points off the bench to round out Spring
Arbor's scoring.
"This was our best overall performance of the year," Cottingham
said. "I'm disappointed for our guys, they played hard all day and gave me their
best effort. We are moving in the right
direction."
The game was in the balance for the entire 40
minutes with neither team leading by more than 7 points at any point in the
ball game. With NMU leading 81-80, Matt
Howe hit a pair of free throws to give Spring Arbor the lead by 1 with 1:13 to
play. The Wildcats then hit 1 of 2 free throws to tie the game at 82 at the :55
second mark. Chris Bellamy had a great
look at a 3 pointer with 30 seconds to play just missing the shot and NMU
getting the rebound. Coming out of a
timeout, the Wildcat's Matt Everson made a layup with 2.3 seconds left in the
game to seal the victory for Northern Michigan.
