Colorado Christian sent the home crowd home happy on Friday night as they were able to defeat Regis by a final score of 83-81. In a back and forth game, CCU was able to come out on top as they opened up conference play against their crosstown rival in the Rangers. On paper, Regis looked to have the advantage, as they had a perfect 6-0 record heading into the game, compared to CCU and their 3-3 record.  
 
The Cougars came out in the first half on fire, as they could not miss especially from downtown. CCU finished the first half shooting a stellar 58% (18-31) from the floor, and hit 58% (7-12) from three. The game was tied 44-44 with just seconds left in the first half, but a block by Ty McGee gave Christian a breakaway at the rim. After blocking the Ranger three point attempt, McGee took off as Isaiah Hanson grabbed the rebound. Hanson delivered a perfect pass to give McGee a chance. McGee took flight and threw down an emphatic one hand slam as time expired to give CCU the two point lead heading into halftime.
 
The tight game continued as the second half began. The lead switched hands multiple times during the first 10 minutes of the half, but Regis began to pull away and with 7:33 left in the game the Rangers pushed their lead to seven 73-66. With just over four minutes remaining, the Cougars deficit was still seven, but they began to chip away at it starting with a made jumper by Stefan Hackethal. Ty McGee scored the next four points in the game, and CCU was back within one. After a made layup by Regis, Isaiah Hanson knocked one down from beyond the arc to tie the game up 81-81 with just over a minute left.
 
After a missed shot, the Cougars grabbed the rebound. At that point, Brett Brady took over. Following a timeout, Brett Brady took a pass from Ty McGee and hit a layup to put the Cougs in front. Regis still had a chance to tie or win the game, but Brady came up huge again as he blocked a layup attempt from the Rangers, and Andre Lane grabbed the board and ran out the rest of the clock to seal the 83-81 victory.
 
Ty McGee led the team in scoring on the night, as he finished with 26 points and also grabbed seven rebounds, dished out six assists, and had two blocks. Dimitri Saliba finished the game with a double-double as he had 15 points and 11 rebounds. Stefan Hackethal made good use of his time on the floor as well as he finished with 13 points. Jacob Taylor rounds out the Cougars in double figures for the game, as he scored 12 points and collected seven rebounds.
 
Head coach Kevin Lubbers spoke after the game saying, "We did some good things tonight, and improved in some areas of focus that we had in practice during the week. Our execution still has a lot of room for improvement, but overall this was a very hard fought win against an excellent Regis team. We will get back it again tomorrow night."
 
The win improves the Cougars record to 4-3 overall, and 1-0 in conference play. They will be back in action on Saturday night as Chadron State College comes to the CCU Event Center in Lakewood, CO. Tip is scheduled for 7PM MST.