Greyhounds Put Out Colts to Advance

Using a stingy defense of their home turf, the Greyhounds took a 68-64 victory over UA Cossatot to end the Colts' season and advance to the NJCAA Region 2 Tournament Championship game this Saturday at 2:00pm.

Playing without leading scorer and rebounder Sam Smith who missed the game due to injury, the Greyhounds limited the Colts' leading scorer Terry Anderson to 11 points, down from his average of 20.9 points per game, and held the Colts to 28 first-half points in taking a 37-28 halftime lead. Spencer Simes and Cullen Brown led the way with 7 points in the half while Kevin Fulton scored 6 as the Greyhounds never trailed.

In the second half, the Colts kept chipping away at the lead and hit a three-pointer to tie the game at 56-56 with 8:09 to go, but Brown hit a three-pointer at the 7:19 mark to break the tie, and the Greyhounds extended the lead to 7 points at the 3:23 mark on a Brown layup. But the Colts made one final push and narrowed the lead to three points on a free throw by Cameron Maxwell with 1:02 remaining, and after the Greyhounds missed on two field goal attempts, the Colts missed a three-pointer to tie with 4.4 seconds remaining. ASU Mid-South then got the ball to Fulton who was fouled and made one of two free throws for the final count.

For the game, Kylon McCullough led the way with 17 points and 9 rebounds while Cullen Brown scored 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting to go with 2 blocked shots in his first career-start. Spencer Simes scored 10 points with 5 rebounds and 2 blocks while helping limit the Colts' 6'7" Anderson on defense, and Jeremiah Jones dished out a team-high 5 assists to go with 3 points. Kevin Fulton finished with 7 points and J.T. Smith scored 6 points to go with 7 boards and 3 assists.

The Greyhounds shot 43.3% from the field and an efficient 46.2% from the three-point line while limiting UA Cossatot to just 31.8% shooting despite the Colts' 12-of-38 shooting (31.6%) from the arc. The Greyhounds also did a good job controlling the boards with a 45-38 advantage.

The Greyhounds (16-4) end the season for UA Cossatot (11-7) and await the result of the tournament's other semifinal game to be played Wednesday night as #5-seed North Arkansas travels to #1-seed SAU Tech. Should North Arkansas win, the Greyhounds would host the Pioneers for the championship. If SAU Tech wins, the Greyhounds will travel to play them in East Camden. Either way, the championship game will be played Saturday at 2:00pm with the winner advancing to the NJCAA National Tournament held April 20-24 in  Danville, Illinois.