The CCU Cougars took on the Bulldogs from Concordia University, Nebraska, to cap off this weekend's tournament hosted by Colorado School of Mines. The Cougars came in to today's game against the NAIA opponent confident, having claimed their first win of the season last night in a 91-72 trouncing of the Bethel College Thrashers. Today's game would be an impressive contest with the two teams trading leads for most of it, but the Bulldogs would eventually come out victorious with a score of 79-66.
 
The first half started off slow for the Cougars compared to last night's game. CCU fell behind big, trailing 19-5 just seven minutes into the game. The Cougar starters couldn't find their shot early, but the bench came to play, scoring 15 points in the first half. With seven minutes left in the first half the Cougars were down 20-30, but would go on a 15-4 run to close out the half, capped off with a last second tip in by junior Preston Hardy off a missed jumper to put the Cougars up 35-34 going into halftime.
 
The second half would be a back-and-forth affair with 14 lead changes and five instances of the score being tied. Despite leading seven times, CCU would never lead by more than two points. The bench also cooled off in the second half, scoring just six points in the final 20 minutes. When the final buzzer sounded, every single Cougar player who played had scored.
 
A trio of Cougars broke double-digits during the game. Leading the Cougars was junior Jeremiah Hanson with 13, redshirt-junior Stefan Hackethal scored 10 of his 12 in the second half, and having himself another well-rounded game was sophomore Marcus Fager, who scored 10 points along with grabbing a team high eight rebounds, while also adding a pair of assists, steals, and blocks for CCU. Starting freshman point guard Tyler Murrell has been consistently improving throughout the young season, and though he managed just seven points today, each time he scored the Cougars regained the lead, contributing quality over quantity thus far.
 
The Cougars will take the court again when they travel to Denver on Friday, December 1^st, to take on the Rangers of Regis University. The Rangers have hosted the first four games of their season at home, tallying up an impressive 4-0 record thus far. The game will mark the opening contest in RMAC play for both teams, tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.