LAKEWOOD, CO – Despite being inches away from a win at the buzzer, the Colorado Christian men's basketball team had to work an extra five minutes to notch Friday night's win.

A nip-and-tuck contest throughout the Cougars battled back late in regulation then worked an overtime session to secure a hard fought 94-92 win against Western.

HOW IT HAPPENED: The game was played in the single digits the entire game. There were 16 lead changes and 10 ties with both team holding the lead for almost the same time.

With 5:37 left in the game it looked as if the Mountaineers would pull away for the win. They capped off a strong scoring spurt to take a 75-66 lead on a Connor Shaw lay-in and force a Cougars timeout. The next several minutes belonged to the Cougars.

Down the stretch Collin Huun scored eight points on the strength of two shots from deep to bolstered a scoring stretch that saw the Cougars take a four-point lead (83-79) with 1:11 showing on the scoreboard. Western battled back and eventually tied the score with three seconds remaining on a pair of Connor Shaw free throws. A half-court shot from Elijah Oliver rattled the backboard and then the rim before falling harmlessly to the court.

The back-and-forth contest continued into overtime. With two minutes left Huun nailed his third three-pointer to give the Cougars a 90-88 edge. However a three-point play by Western's Avery Rembao with 1:09 left put the contest back in the visitors favor. Spencer Hoffman came down and hit a fade away jumper with 51 ticks remaining to put the Cougars back in front 91-90.

Western tied the score at 92-92 with 37 second left when Jackson Ehrlin went 1-for-2 from the foul line. Hoffman hit a shot with 10 ticks left for the final field goal of the game. Western had a last second shot by Monroe Porter clang off the iron.

COUGAR LEADERS: Spencer Hoffman was excellent in the post as the sophomore scored a team high 28 points on 12-of-17 shooting.

Hoffman was one of five players to score in double figures as Justin Engesser and Huun each tallied a 13-point performance. Jake Hornick and Oliver both registered 11 points.

Hornick and Engesser each handed out a team high five assists.

INSIDE THE BOXSCORE

• Hoffman has scored 20 or more points in four of the last five game
• Both teams made over half their field goal attempts, with Colorado Christian making 57.1 percent and Western converting 51.5 percent
• Colorado Christian held the lead for 20:07 while Western led for 17:13

UP NEXT: Colorado Christian closed out the weekend with a Saturday home contest against Colorado Mesa at 7:00 p.m.

COLLIN HUUN POST GAME COMMENTS