SPRING ARBOR, MI – It wasn't pretty but the Lady Cougars will walk away with a 59-53 win over the Rochester College Warriors on Wednesday night.  It marks the second win for Spring Arbor this season over Rochester.  Six Cougars scored points led by Carlie Newman's 27 point, 10 rebound performance.

It took over five minutes for the Cougars to get on the board when Lindsey Burnside scored with 14:44 to go in the first half and with the Cougars down 2-4.  But once the cap was lifted, Spring Arbor got rolling and quickly built a 16-6 lead.

Spring Arbor scored the last eight points of the first half to take a 29-13 lead into the break.

After the break, Spring Arbor started an 11-2 run to open the half, but the Warriors would not go down without a fight.  Over a seven minute span, Rochester cut the Cougar lead to just four points (46-42) with plenty of time on the clock (5:56) to put a scare in the Cougar faithful.

"Obviously you never want to see a lead dwindle down like that but I thought our girls made big plays down the stretch when we needed it," said Head Coach, Ryan Frost.  "Another great effort by Carlie, she really carried us in the second half.  We got good play from both Rachel and Lindsey.  They were active under the basket and finished shots." 

This was the second double-double for Newman this year and her third game scoring more than 20 points.

Spring Arbor spread the lead back to double digits (55-45) with 2:33 left in the game, but once again, the Warriors clawed their way back to cut the lead to just three points, 56-53 with 0:33 left in the game.  Free throws from Spring Arbor would close out the game and the 59-52 outcome.

Rachel Driesenga nearly had a double-double scoring nine points against 10 rebounds and Lindsey Burnside added nine points to the tally as well.

Spring Arbor improves to 4-2 on the season and will travel to Indiana University-South Bend for noon tilt with the Titans.  This is the first contest since  the Cougars took a 55-48 decision back in 2007.