Columbia College humiliates Harris-Stowe

• The Cougars’ toughest tests come this week on the road.

The No. 13 NAIA Cougars (22-5, 7-0) continued to roll through American Midwestern Conference opponents and had no problem in putting away the last-placed Hornets (6-20, 1-6).

“Once we started playing basketball it was our game,” said Cougars coach Bob Burchard. “They tried to make this one into a wrestling match or a street fight to begin with.”

The Hornets made up for their lack of talent with elbow shots, and acting performances when trying to take charges. But the Cougars simply attacked the basket, made several of Harris-Stowe defenders drop like flies and rarely were called for charging.

“We expected them to play aggressive,” said Cougars forward Brandon Moore, who finished with 16 points. “We knew they were trying to get us out of what we do and get us to play their style of basketball, which is free and easy.”

Harris-Stowe’s largest lead came in the game’s first two minutes at 7-2. Columbia College, after taking a 16-14 lead after the first 10 minutes, never looked back.

The Cougars went on runs of 19-5, 16-5, and 13-4 and led by as many as 56 points.

Lawrence Thomas, the Cougars’ senior All-AMC forward, continued his recent stellar play and had a game-high nine rebounds to go along with his 15 points.

After struggling during the first half of the season, Thomas has now led the team in points twice and in rebounds three times in Columbia’s past four games.

“He’s playing like good seniors do at this time of year,” Burchard said. “They know that their games are numbered.”

After having to play against two of the conference’s premier big men last week in McKendree’s Matt Laur and Hannibal-LaGrange’s Robert Joseph, Thomas had absolutely no problem dealing with the scrappy play of Harris-Stowe’s smaller front line.

“I try to be a leader on and off the court,” Thomas said. “I do what I can do for this team and within the flow of the team.”

Columbia shot 60.6 percent from the field compared to Harris-Stowe’s 38.1 percent and outrebounded the Hornets by 13.

Harris-Stowe had only two players in double-figures with guard Justin Davis scoring 24 and forward John Lewis adding 15.

With Thomas and Moore in charge of the Cougar front line, guards Jerrod Thompson (16 points) and Armeake Estes (team-high 18 points) were able to control the backcourt.

“We’re in a nice groove right now,” said Thompson. “We know exactly what everyone is going to do.”

The Cougars will go on the road this week to face the AMC’s top two contenders in No. 2 McKendree on Thursday and No. 3 Missouri Baptist next Saturday.

Burchard hopes his team will finish out on top of the conference.

“Home court advantage is big,” Burchard said. “What happens next week will determine everything.”

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