January 5, 2011

COLUMBUS – The Columbus State men's basketball team opened the new year in winning fashion Wednesday night taking down Brewton-Parker 71-63 in the Lumpkin center. CSU improves to 4-6 on the year while BPC drops to 2-11.

The game opened up with a highlight reel play when Jarmarquis Steverson threw an alley-oop to Paul Darkwa for the opening score in the contest.  The duo combined to score the first eight points in the game as the Cougars opened the game with an 8-4 lead five minutes in.  After each team made a basket, Andrew Houts hit a three-pointer to give CSU their biggest lead of the first half, 13-8 at the 13:09 mark. 

Brewton-Parker would respond in a hurry as they hit three straight buckets from behind the arc to take a 17-13 advantage with 11:30 to go in the opening half.  They extended their lead by seven (22-15) over the next minute and a half.

Donta Ridley would lead a charge for Columbus State as he scored seven of the team's 15 points during a 15-5 run that gave the Cougars the lead again, 32-27 with 3:12 remaining in the half.

The Barons closed out the half on a 7-3 run including a three-pointer that banked in with three seconds on the clock.  BP took a 36-35 lead into the locker room.

Coming out of the break Brewton-Parker scored the first five points as their lead grew back to six points before the teams would go back and forth at each other over the next several minutes of action.

From there, CSU would make a push over a two minute span that erased their deficit with a 7-0 run, giving the hosts a 46-44 advantage with 14:52 to go in the game.  Neither team would make a strong push over the next several minutes as the scored was tied three times over that stretch, the final time at 53-53 with 9:02 remaining. 

The Cougars again would make a small run, this time a 6-0 run as Darius Mcknight knocked down a pair of free throws and Lamar Williams added four points. 

Brewton-Parker didn't go quietly as they retook the lead with a 7-0 spurt with 3:59 left in the game. 

Again Columbus State responded as they regained the lead for good on a pair of Mcknight free throws at the 2:34 mark, 61-60.  From there, the Cougars iced the game making six of their final seven three throw attempts.

Williams paced the offense for CSU scoring 14 points and Ridley added 10 points as the only two players to reach double figures.  Peterson just missed out on a double-double scoring nine points and grabbing a game high 10 rebounds.  The Cougars forced 15 turnovers as they held Brewton-Parker to just 36.5% from the field.  CSU shot 45.1% from the field and made 22-of-28 (78.6%) free throws.  They out-rebounded the opponents 40-34.

Andrew Dikas led the balanced attack for Brewton-Parker as he scored a game high 15 points.  Four other Barons scored in double figures as they made 11 three-pointers.  They shot themselves in the foot hitting on just 6-of-15 attempts from charity stripe.   

Columbus State is back on the hardwood this weekend when it travels to North Georgia for a Peach Belt Conference contest.  The Saints will enter the game with a 3-7 record but are 2-0 at home this season.  Tipoff is set for 3:30 p.m.