SPRING ARBOR, MI – Spring Arbor University's men's basketball team cruised to a 77-57 victory over Goshen College on Saturday afternoon on Bockwitz Court. The Cougars never trailed and were only tied once, very early and led from start to finish collecting their tenth win of the season against 12 losses and evened their Crossroads League record to 5-5 and a tie for sixth place in the standings.
Spring Arbor quickly constructed a 10 point lead when Caleb Hogans connected on a layup to lift the Cougars to a 14-4 lead with 11:39 left in the first half. With just under five minutes to go before the break, the Maple Leafs had cut into the Cougar's lead on a 3-pointer and a score of 22-20.
Spring Arbor scored nine unanswered points with contributions from Thomas Starks on the old-fashioned three point play and layups by Rob Hogans, Caleb Hogans, and Jiles Neely all in just over a minute of play.
When the buzzer sounded for the first half, Spring Arbor had the advantage 35-26.
The second half of play was mostly dominated by the Cougars as SAU put it on cruise control and controlled the pace of play, and almost all of the work above the rim outscoring the Maple Leafs 42-31 in the second half.
Highlights in the second half was a classic steal and double pump slam dunk by Rob Hogans, and a beautiful alley-oop slam by Peter Barry from Greg Hamilton.
Spring Arbor controlled the boards ripping down 46 rebounds compared to just 23 for the Leafs.
Rob Hogans picked up another double-double for the season, his third of the campaign scoring a game high 21 points and grabbing 10 boards. Tyler Hughes added 12 points and five rebounds and Caleb Hogans scored 11 points and five rebounds. Greg Hamilton had six point, six rebounds, and six assists in his 27 minutes of action.
Spring Arbor will travel to Huntington University on Tuesday night and try to avenge a 62-75 loss suffered in Spring Arbor on December 3. Huntington is 7-3 in League play and is tied for second place with IWU. Huntington lost to Marian 64-55 today to fall out of the lead in the CL. Tuesday night's contest in Huntington, IN is slated for 7:00 p.m.
