Cougars keep rolling

• Columbia College beats Hannibal-LaGrange to win its fifth straight conference game.

Joseph, the American Midwest Conference’s No. 3 scorer (18 points per game) couldn’t not be contained and finished with 23 points, 17 rebounds and four blocks.

The Cougars’ (20-5, 5-0 AMC) defense forced Hannibal (18-8, 1-5) into 21 turnovers.

“We’re always trying to improve on our defense,” said Columbia forward Brandon Moore, who was the team’s second-leading scorer with 15 points. “We knew if we could contain their perimeter offense, we’d win the game.”

The Cougars did just that. Hannibal point guard Donald Bell, the conference’s No. 4 scorer (16.6 points per game) was held in check and was limited to five points on 1-for-15 shooting.

The Cougars struggled with the inside presence of Haitian-native Joseph and the rest of the Hannibal front line, especially in the first half when Columbia only shot 35 percent from the field and scored only 25 points.

The turning point in the game came from an unexpected source, Columbia forward Lawrence Thomas. The forward has been having a quiet year up until the Cougars’ home win versus McKendree College on Thursday when he scored 24.

With 13:38 left, Thomas drove down the lane, took a pass from Jerrod Thompson and skyed above Trojan guard Jeremy Moore for the tomahawk dunk and the foul. Despite missing the free throw he gave Columbia its first lead in the second half, 33-31.

“A team gets energy off a play like that,” said Columbia coach Bob Burchard. “I think Lawrence more than anyone else benefited from that.”

Thomas had to face Joseph on the low post for most of the night. In the first half, Thomas had no points and no rebounds. By the end of the game, he was limited to six points on 3-for-10 shooting, but that dunk and his three defensive rebounds were key down the stretch.

Outside of Joseph, the Trojans had only one player in double-digits with guard Ryan Wood’s 15 points on 5-for-11 shooting.

“Joseph is our go-to guy down low, we rely on him to control the paint and he did just that,” Hannibal coach Kent Thomas said. “But we didn’t get the balanced scoring like we should get and it affected us quite a bit.”

Columbia’s bench scoring also made a huge contribution, with the Cougars outscoring the Trojans 33-4.

“We’re becoming fairly interchangeable,” said Burchard.

In the second half Columbia went on runs of 9-1 and 9-3 to put this one away.

Thompson struggled again with his 3-point shooting going 0-for-5 from beyond the arc, but finished with a team-high 16 points, most coming off of steals and breakaway layups. The starting off guard made some key defensive plays down the stretch and finished with six assists and five steals.

“Everyone is scouting everybody,” Burchard said. “Jerrod is having a little more difficult time getting open now that teams are concentrating on him more. Maybe it’s time to reshuffle the lineup.”

The Cougars’ next AMC matchup is an away game against the woeful Pirates of Park University, who lost at Columbia 95-69 on Jan. 20.

Despite the Pirates’ 4-17 record, Thomas will not overlook any team in the AMC.

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