SPRING ARBOR, MI – The Cougars of Spring Arbor dug themselves too deep of a hole to comeback from against the #11 ranked Cougars of St. Francis on Tuesday night, nearly coming back from a 16 point deficit to fall 62-66 in a Crossroads League men's basketball tilt.
Spring Arbor trailed St. Francis 31-36 after the first 20 minute stanza and after 10 minutes of play in the second half, St. Francis had stretched the lead to 13 (36-49). Just over four minutes later, St. Francis continued to keep the pressure on the Cougars leading by 16 point, 39-55 with 5:40 left on the clock.
All season long, the Cougars have found ways to keep themselves in the game and tonight wasn't any different and SAU went on a 12-2 run to cut the St. Francis lead to just six points (51-57) with planty of time left on the clock for another comeback effort.
But, this one didn't quite work out in Spring Arbor's favor as a very talented St. Francis ball team kept SAU at bay and led by 11 points (54-65) with 40 seconds left on clock.
Spring Arbor made the score look good scoring eight of the next nine points with a basket by Xavier Prather and 3-pointers by Collin Hewitt and Isaac Love, but there wasn't enough time left and SAU would fall 62-66.
Rob Hogans continues to lead the Crossroads League in scoring as he poured in 24 points tonight and with that, moves into 12th place on the All-Time Scoring list for SAU passing Reno Taylor (82'). Hogans has 1735 career points and 38 points shy of recent grad and former teammate, DJ Baisden. Hogans is averaging 24.6 points per game this season, which is best in the CL.
Spring Arbor falls to 9-10 on the season and 4-3 in League play but still remains in the middle of the Crossroads League as #4 Bethel (3-4) fell to #20 Huntington (6-1) 86-84 and #24 Marian (4-2) lost to Grace (2-5) 52-51.
Spring Arbor will travel to Indiana Wesleyan on Saturday for a 3:00 game in Marian, IN. IWU is 5-2 in the CL after defeating Taylor (2-5) 71-52.
