Colorado Christian spotted Black Hills State a 20 point lead to begin the game, but were able to battle back and eventually defeat the Yellow Jackets by a final score of 71-65. Jonathan Stevens scored all six of his points in the final few minutes of the game, including an electrifying put back dunk to put the Cougs up by four with 10 seconds left. CCU is now 7-1 in RMAC play, which puts them in second place behind Fort Lewis College.
 
The Cougars got off to a slow start in the first half. That coupled with a red hot beginning to the game from Black Hills State put CCU in an early double digit deficit. After just ten minutes of play, the Yellow Jackets held a 20 point lead with the score sitting at 28-8. From that point on, the Cougs settled in and began to run their offense. Andre Lane provided a spark off of the bench as he worked on cutting the deficit down three points at a time. Lane finished the first half with nine points as he hit 3-5 from long distance. Christian slowly began to get back into the game, and by halftime had cut the Black Hills lead down to just 10, as they trailed 29-39 at the half.
 
Ty McGee was the leading scorer for the team in the half as he finished with 11 points. Brett Brady led the team in assists with four, and also contributed 7 points.
 
Both teams remained even for the first five minutes of the second half, but then CCU began to pull even. With just under 15 minutes left in the game, Black Hills led 50-39, but then CCU ripped off a 14-0 run over a four minute stretch to take the lead 53-50 with 11 minutes left in the game.
 
It was a tight battle the rest of the way, as each team held the lead, but neither could take full control. A made three pointer from Dimitri Saliba tied the game up 59-59 with just under six minutes remaining. After the two teams exchanged buckets, freshman Jonathan Stevens scored the go ahead bucket, then after a defensive stop Stevens scored again to give the Cougs a four point lead 65-61 with just over a minute left. Once again Jonathan Stevens came through as he had an emphatic put-back slam with 10 seconds left, which gave the Cougars the lead for good. They went on to win by a final score of 71-65.
 
Brett Brady finished with 14 points in the second half to give him 21 for the game. Also finishing in double figures for CCU was Andre Lane with 13, Ty McGee with 12, and Dimitri Saliba with 10. Saliba also led the team in rebounds with seven, and assists with five. As a team, they shot 36% (21-58) from the field, and hit 30% (10-30) from downtown. A key factor in the win was the effort from the free throw line. CCU made the most of their chances as they hit 19-22 from the line, compared to Black Hills only hitting 7-8.
 
Head coach Kevin Lubbers spoke about his team's effort after the game saying, "I was really proud of our guys' defensive persistence after digging ourselves a 28-8 hole to start the game. We executed really well the final 30 minutes of the game defensively. Black Hills State is an excellent defensive team and did a great job busting our offensive rhythm all night long. Our defense was certainly the key to victory tonight."
 
The Cougars close out 2016 with a win and improve their record to 10-4 overall, and 7-1 in conference play. They will be back in action next week as they travel to Salt Lake City, UT to take on Westminster College on Friday Jan. 6^th. Tip is scheduled for 7PM MST.