LAKEWOOD, CO- The Cougars closed the 2026 season and celebrated their four seniors on Saturday as they hosted Fort Lewis College inside the CCU Event Center. CCU celebrated Pierce Bazil, Garrett Poelman, Andrew Reichart and Bobby McWard in their final games as a Cougar in a pregame ceremony. 

The Skyhawks came out on fire, surging to an 8-0 lead before Zachary Reed drilled a three-pointer to stop the run. A three-point play from Garrett Poelman further cut into the deficit, while Porter Bazil and Andrew Reichart got layups to go as FLC led 19-10. 

Pierce began to heat up as he went on an 8-0 run of his own with a layup and consecutive three-pointers. Fort Lewis continued to play efficient offense and score the ball, doing the bulk of their work in the paint with their bigs. Pierce and Porter hit back-to-back threes to cut the deficit to 31-24, but the visitors once again got on a run to go up 42-26. Andrew slammed a dunk home late in the half, but FLC took a 46-33 lead to the break. 

McWard ignited the offense with a three-pointer out of halftime, and a drained three from Sachafer brought the deficit back to single digits at 52-43. The highlight real play of the game came from the Bazil brothers, as they worked in transition off a missed basket from FLC. A beautiful combo play after Porter got the rebound and passed it up to Pierce saw the brothers combine again as Pierce left it off to his brother who lobbed it up for Pierce to slam home a thunderous dunk off the alley oop and send the crowd into a frenzy. 

Despite the momentum shifting play, Fort Lewis showed resilience as they answered with a 10-0 run to go up 64-47. McWard drained another three, and Poelman put in a layup as a rally began. McWard splashed in another three-pointer, and Reichart nailed one from beyond the arc as suddenly CCU trailed by just 11 at 71-60. Unfortunately, time was not on the Cougars side and several free throws down the stretch from the visitors led them to the 83-64 victory. 

Pierce closed out his final game as a Cougar with a team high 22 points with 3 assists and 3 steals. Schafer and Andrew each had 10 points, while McWard had 9. Poelman finished with 5 points and 7 rebounds. 

The Cougars closed the 2025-2026 season with a 13-15 overall record and an 8-12 mark in RMAC play, finishing in ninth in the highly competitive conference as they nearly made the RMAC tournament. CCU has a lot to be proud of as they made strides this season and gave their fans many memorable moments to cheer for inside the CCU Event Center.