FORT WAYNE, IN – Spring Arbor trailed the #11 ranked University of St. Francis Cougars for much of the first half and the entire second half in Tuesday night's men's basketball game before dropping a hard fought 68-60 loss to the Crossroads League fourth place team.
After back and forth play for the first 10 minutes of the game, St. Francis held just a two point advantage over SAU with the score 18-16. At the break, Spring Arbor was still very much in the ball game 35-31 with 20 minutes of action left.
St. Francis started the second half with a 6-0 run and a 10 point lead over Spring Arbor before Rob Hogans broke the ice for the Cougars with a short range basket to cut the USF lead to 41-33.
Later in the second half, Hogans rallied the Cougars, once again, stringing six straight points to pull Spring Arbor to within two points, 54-56, with 6:31 left in game.
The tide turned the other way for Spring Arbor for the next five minutes as the Cougars offense went completely dry and USF scored eight un-answered points and a 64-54 lead with just 1:10 and a Spring Arbor upset looked bleak.
St. Francis held off a Cougar charge and as time expired, the home team held the 68-60 advantage on the score board.
Rob Hogans led the Cougars with 24 and a game high five steals and Xavier Prather added 12 points for SAU. Heading into tonight's game, Hogans was ranked third in the NAIA DII in points scored for the season and sixth in points per game at 25.615 points per game.
Scott Kohne had a notable performance for St. Francis dropping 26 points and hauling in 23 rebounds.
The Cougars of Spring Arbor have now lost five straight and own a 10-17 overall record and are 5-10 in Crossroads League. St. Francis improves to 18-9 and 10-5 and are tied with Bethel for fourth place in the CL standings.
Spring Arbor will return home for their last two home games of the season starting with a 3:00 tip on Saturday with #9 Indiana Wesleyan University and then the home finale on Tuesday night against Marian University.
