Photo Courtesy of Ted Besty
DENVER – A casual observer wouldn't have envisioned the outcome had they watched just the first half.
A furious shooting effort in the second half by Regis led them to a 76-65 victory against Colorado Christian.
Monday's contest was make-up from the originally scheduled game on Feb. 5.
HOW IT HAPPENED: After the first two minutes, the game looked to be headed in one direction but the game's first u-turn happened quickly. Regis scored nine of the first 11 points then the Colorado Christian offense got going. The Cougars doubled-up the home team the rest of the stanza as they went into halftime up 44-30.
During the opening 20 minutes the Cougars hit 54.5 percent (18-for-33) of their field goal attempts, including an 8-of-15 performance from behind the arc, to give them their double figure edge.
The Rangers vaulted back into the contest early in the second frame as they cut their deficit to 46-43 with just under 15 minutes remaining. The game's u-turn theme, as well as the Rangers second half shooting efforts, continued when the home retook the lead, at 51-50, on a Brian Dawson jumper with 12:06 left.
Regis never trailed the rest of the way. The home team built their lead to 67-54 with just under six minutes left in the contest as they never let the Cougars back within single digits of the lead. In the final 20 minutes the Rangers missed just eight of their 28 field goal attempts in the second half (71.4 percent).
COUGAR LEADERS: Justin Engesser notched a double-double with a 12-point, 12-rebound effort while playing all 40 minutes. The duo of Ross Williams and DJ McDonald led the team in scoring by registering 15 and 12 points respectively.
INSIDE THE BOXSCORE
- Inside the three-point arc, Regis converted 31 of their 40 attempts
- The Rangers shot 61.1 percent for the game
- Each team grabbed 31 rebounds
- Colorado Christian led for nearly 60 percent of the game
UP NEXT: The Cougars host UCCS on Tuesday evening at 7 p.m. It is a make-up game from Jan. 23
