SPRING ARBOR, MI - The Cougars men's basketball team was voted a pre-season 9th place team in the MCC Conference. They didn't look like it on Saturday afternoon at Spring Arbor's fieldhouse against a tough Marian Knights basketball team. Spring Arbor soundly defeated the Knights 70-56.
Spring Arbor was paced once again by the silky smooth play of Junior guard Chris Bellamy who led all scorers in the game with 21 points. Bellamy also grabbed 7 rebounds on the afternoon.
Matt Howe scored 14 points and hauled in 8 rebounds and rejected two Marian shots and was a perfect 6 for 6 from the free throw line.
Spring Arbor was 23 of 24 from the free throw line in the game and for the season they are currently hitting 80.9% from the charity stripe which as of today ranks them #1 in the NAIA in both Div. 1 and Div. 2.
This was a great win for the guys tonight," said Head Coach, Ryan Cottingham. "This was one of our better games in terms of execution, and staying focused on our game plan. We aren't there yet, but we are heading in the right direction."
The Cougars won the battle of the boards against Marian 37-31.
Caleb Byers and Matt Van Pelt both scored in double digits with 12 and 10 points respectively.
The win lifts the Cougars to 7-3 overall and 2-1 in conference play. Marian falls to 5-3 overall and 0-3 in the MCC.
