Colorado Christian took on Adams State on Saturday night looking for their fourth consecutive win, but the Grizzlies had other ideas as they handed CCU the loss by a final score of 89-77. Christian went down big early, and despite a good effort in the second half they were unable to come away with the victory.  
 
Adams jumped out to an early lead against the Cougars as they seemingly could not miss for the first five minutes of the game. Colorado Christian did not have an answer for Shakir Smith on the Grizzlies as he finished the first half with 23 points and connected on 9-10 of his shots from the floor including 3-3 from beyond the three point line. Smith was a problem all night, and finished the game with 34 points. Despite the torrid start for ASU, Christian fought hard to get back into the game, but the speed of the Grizzlies team made it difficult for them to sustain any offensive momentum. Heading into halftime, the Cougars found themselves in a 17 point hole with the score 45-28 in favor of Adams State. CCU finished the half shooting 40% from the field, but were unable to find their long shot as they only hit on 2-14 shots from three point land. Wayne McCullough was the leading scorer at the break for the Cougars with seven points.
 
CCU came out of the break with some extra intensity and began their attempt at an impressive comeback. Their gritty and determined play helped them cut the lead down to eight points with 11:45 remaining in the game. A key aspect of the second half success was that some of the outside shots began to fall, but the biggest impact was the strong interior play from big man Jacob Taylor. Taylor's presence around the rim impacted several shots from ASU and he was able to prevent second chance points by fighting hard for every rebound. He also was efficient on the offensive side as he scored eight of his ten points in the second half and was 4-5 shooting from the floor.
 
With five minutes remaining, the Cougars were still facing a seven point hole they needed to dig themselves out of, but it was not meant to be. Adams was able to force a couple of late turnovers and hit their foul shots late, which was all they needed to do in order to secure the 89-77 victory over CCU.
 
Coach Kevin Lubbers on the game tonight, "We got the result we worked for tonight, and so did Adams State."
 
The leading scorers on the night for CCU were Wayne McCullough and Jeremiah Hanson who both finished with 15 points. Ty McGee finished with a double-double as he scored 12 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. Jacob Taylor was the other Cougar that reached double digits tonight as he finished with ten points and seven rebounds.  
 
The loss drops the Cougars to 7-8 on the year and 3-6 in conference play. They will be back in action Friday January 5^th, and they travel to downtown Denver to take on Metro State. Tip is scheduled for 7PM MST.  
 
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