Cougars Fall in Regular-Season Finale at Montevallo

Montevallo, Ala. -- Columbus State shot 55 percent in teh second half of its season finale on Saturday at Montevallo, but the strong effort was not enough to overcome a deep hole created in the first 25 minutes of play as the Cougars fell 82-63. CSU ends its season at 12-14 overall and 6-11 in Peach Belt Conference play.

Saturday's loss officially eliminated the Cougars from any post-season play. Clayton State will be the fourth seed from the PBC West when the PBC Tournament gets underway on Wednesday.

CSU never led in the game on Saturday as the Falcons scored the first seven points of the contest. UM took its first double-digit lead after a Jonas Brown jumper with 12:03 to play in the first half made it 19-9. A Donta Ridley trimmed the margin back to single digits a few seconds later, but the Falcons answered with a Freddy Little trey and the Cougars would not get the lead to single digits again. UM led 40-24 at the half.

The Falcons scored the first six points of the second half to go up by 20. That became part of a 13-4 run to start the half. Jordan Hutchison's free-throw with 14:47 to play capped the run and made it 53-28.

CSU finally came to life a bit offensively and out-scored the Falcons 20-11 over the next nine minutes to cut the margin to 16. Ridley hit one of two free-throws with 5:56 left to make it 64-48, but that would be as close as the Cougars would get.

Seniors Chris Telesford and Brandon Bland each tallied 17 points to lead the Cougars, while freshman Darius Smith came off the bench to go 6-7 from the floor and score 12 points. Telesford led the Cougars in rebounding with seven as the Falcons dominated the glass 40-29. CSU ended the game shooting 45 percent.

Little's 21 points led Montevallo (21-6, 11-6). Gerald January added 19 points, while Tauras Dortch scored 10. Hutchison led the rebounding effort with 12.