LAKEWOOD, CO – It has been a battle all season for the Colorado Christian men's basketball. Saturday evening's first win of the season continued that theme but with a much sweeter result.
A driving lay-in in the closing seconds of the game gave the Cougars a thrilling 79-77 win against UCCS.
HOW IT HAPPENED: The early moments were back-and-forth as lead changed hands five times before Colorado Christian gained a measure of momentum. Collin Huun hit a pair of shots from the charity stripe after a UCCS technical foul. After the two freebies, the Cougars held a 23-17 edge with 6:20 left until halftime.
The Cougars eventually grew that lead to 33-24 after a Spencer Hoffman lay-up with just over two minutes remaining until intermission. UCCS finished the half on a 10-2 scoring spurt punctuated by a Padiet Wang three-pointer at the buzzer. The Cougars took a 35-34 edge into the locker room.
Out of the break UCCS hit eight of their first 13 shots to build a 56-50 lead with 11:21 remaining. They built that advantage to nine points (59-50) moments later before the Cougars made a bid for the lead. Aided by three-pointers from Engesser and Jake Hornick at the end of a 16-3 scoring spurt the, Colorado Christian went ahead 66-62 after the final media timeout.
Playing with a renewed sense of energy during that last 3:47, the Cougars continued their scoring run and took a 73-64 lead once Hoffman completed his three-point play at the foul line. However, UCCS hit three-pointers on three straight possessions to tie the score at 73-73 with just under 90 ticks on the clock left.
The contest came down to the last possession as the Cougars had the ball with less than 30 seconds left with the score knotted at 77. Christian Hyatt had the ball in his hands and drove the lane for a lay-up to seal the win with 1.7 seconds left. UCCS desperation three-quarter court heave didn't connect at the buzzer.
QUOTABLE: "Hopefully this will give us a little bit of confidence that we can play with the better teams in the RMAC," said head coach Jeff Hironaka. "We are getting better. When we execute and run our offense correctly we are a good team. And tonight, when we needed to make a play, we made a play."
COUGAR LEADERS: Jake Hornick was the squads leading scorer with an 18-point performance. Justin Engesser (17) and Spencer (16) were just behind the senior's point total. Huun contributed 11 points off the bench in just under 20 minutes of the floor.
INSIDE THE BOXSCORE
- There were seven lead changes and nine ties
- UCCS led for 18:03 while Colorado Christian held a lead for 17:50
- Colorado Christian went 22-for-24 from the foul line
UP NEXT: The Cougars close out the 2019 portion of their campaign with a Friday, Dec. 20 contest at Regis. Tip-off for the game is set for 7 p.m.
Game Winner Lay-Up by Hyatt
