OAKLAND CITY, IN - The goal for any college basketball coach is to get your team to play it's best basketball in March. They call it March Madness for a reason. Head Coach, Ryan Cottingham seems to have formula that works. The #2 seed Cougars defeated #7 seed Southeastern University Fire (FL) 78-54.
Senior DJ Baisden hit a 3-pointer 15 seconds into the game and the Cougars were off and running to a 41-34 halftime lead.
Baisden finished the game, and led all scorers with 22 points on 7 of 13 shots from the floor including 6 of 7 3-pointers, but this was a complete team effort.
"DJ was lights out, but everybody played outstanding," said Cottingham. "Matt Howe got another double-double, (Chris) Bellamy was fantastic, Rob Hogans and Caleb Byers came off the bench and gave us great minutes, and Willie Pickvet played great and he wasn't able to practice for much of the last two weeks (knee)".
Spring Arbor held the Fire to 20 points in the second half while scoring 37.
"Southeastern is a very athletic team and with us not playing a game in three weeks made me a little concerned," continued Cottingham. "But we controlled the game on both ends shooting the ball well and outrebounding Southeastern 44-30. This was a total team effort."
Spring Arbor had four players score in double digits with Baisden's 22 points, Chris Bellamy scored 17 points, and Matt Howe and Willie Pickvet added 11 and 10 points, respectively. Matt Howe hauled in 11 rebounds for the double-double.
The Cougars will continue their run for their 3rd NCCAA National Championship as they will play King College at 5:00 pm Friday, March 18. The Cougars claimed back to back National Championships in 2005 and 2006, the last team to do so.
