MOUNT VERNON, OH – Spring Arbor University's men's basketball team won a hard fought, come from behind game against Mount Vernon Nazarene University on Tuesday night. With the 69-63 win, the Cougars have achieved a 20 win season for the seventh time in the last nine seasons.
Spring Arbor shot the lights out in Mount Vernon's gymnasium on Tuesday night hitting an amazing 10-17 (59%) from 3-point range, including 8-12 during the second half comeback. The Cougars of Spring Arbor trailed the Cougars of Mount Vernon 29-25 at intermission.
The game was a back and forth affair in the last 20 minutes with SAU gaining the lead four times and Mount Vernon gaining the lead three times. Spring Arbor took the lead for the final time on a Chris Bellamy 3-pointer with 8:16 remaining in the game to give the Cougars a 50-48 lead.
Matt Howe returned to form leading Spring Arbor with 19 points hitting 7-9 from the floor and 5-7 from the free throw line all the while grabbing a game high, nine rebounds.
Rob Hogans and Chris Bellamy each scored 18 points with each hitting four 3-pointers. Hogans connected on 4-7 from beyond the arc, Bellamy was 4-6 from the same range. Bellamy also hauled in eight rebounds.
For the second straight game, and the third time this season, Matt Van Pelt reached double digits in the assist column as he aided the Cougars on 10 of their field goals. Entering tonight's ballgame, Van Pelt was ranked 8th in the Nation in the number of assists for the season with 148.
The win improves Spring Arbor to 20-9 on the season and 10-7 in the Crossroads League, and moved the Cougars into 5th place alone in the CL standings. League action couldn't have worked out better for the Cougars tonight as Indiana Wesleyan (24-5, 13-4) defeated Taylor (19-10, 11-6), and more importantly, Marian University (16-11, 8-9) upset St. Francis (17-12, 9-8) who was tied with the Cougars for the fifth spot.
With one game remaining in the regular season, Spring Arbor will face Huntington (16-13, 7-10) in Huntington, Taylor with travel to Grace (20-8, 12-5). A Cougar win and Taylor loss will create a tie for fourth place and a first round home court advantage for Spring Arbor who own the tie-breaker over Taylor with wins over the top-seeded IWU.
This is the seventh 20 win season for Head Coach Ryan Cottingham. In his 14th season at the helm of the Cougars, Cottingham has amassed a career record of 258-212. This is the 18th time in the 50 years of Spring Arbor University men's basketball that a team has reached the 20 win milestone.
The Cougars will conclude the regular season on Saturday at Huntington at 3:00 pm.
