SPRING ARBOR, MI – The Lady Cougars used a combination of solid shooting and a stingy defense to defeat the Mount Vernon Nazarene University Cougars 61-44 on Wednesday night to stay alive in their bid for post season play.  With their backs against the wall, Spring Arbor needed to win tonight and this Saturday against Huntington, and to have Mount Vernon lose this Saturday to St. Francis to earn the eighth and final spot in the Crossroads League Tournament.

Spring Arbor connected on over 47% (9-19) from 3-point range and 16-23 from the free throw line to set the pace in the game and consistently hit shots when they needed them to maintain a double digit lead throughout most of the game.

Defensively, the Lady Cougars were pesky all night long creating 20 turnovers, blocking six Mount Vernon shots, but most importantly allowing MVNU to hit just 26% (17-64) of their field goals for the entire night.  Mount Vernon only connected on one of their fourteen 3-pointers for the game as well.

The visiting Cougars had several second chances on the night as they out-rebounded Spring Arbor 42-30, including 18 offensive boards.

Spring Arbor never allowed Mount Vernon to gain any kind of momentum in the second half.  The biggest run the Mount Vernon was able to put together was a five point run with 7:19 left in the game.  The Cougars lead was cut from 16 points to 11 points during  a 2:05 span, but Spring Arbor would never allow Mount Vernon to close the gap by less than 10 points.

Jessica Garrison led a trio of Cougars in double digits with 13 points.  Both Carlie Newman and Audra Norris scored 12 points.  Aimee Konkel added eight points to go along with her five assists.

Newman led Spring Arbor with a game high nine rebounds.

With the win, Spring Arbor improves to 10-19 for the season and 4-13 in Crossroads League play.  It also marks the first time since the 2008-09 season the Cougars hit double digit wins.

Spring Arbor will conclude the regular season on Saturday when they host Huntington University at 1:00.