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By: Josh Fuller

DAHLONEGA, Ga. – The 21^st-ranked Columbus State University men's basketball team cruised to a 95-67 road victory over North Georgia Wednesday night. The Peach Belt Conference contest took place in Memorial Hall in Dahlonega, Ga.

The 28-point victory was the largest ever victory for the Cougars over UNG. The win also extended CSU's road winning streak to six games.

"I thought this was one of the best games we have played this entire season," said head coach Robert Moore, who picked up his 90^th career victory on Wednesday. "Cam [Baker] put us on his back early in the game, but we had some big points from our bench tonight from Matthias [Sigurdarson] and Arben [Camaj]."

Columbus State (12-2, 6-1 PBC) found itself down 5-0 right out of the gates as the Nighthawks got a three from Tanner Plemmons and a jumper from T.J. Williams. From there, Cam Baker took over.

The senior scored the first 11 points for the Cougars as the Columbus native single-handedly put CSU up 11-7 four minutes into the game. During the spurt, Baker was 5-for-5 from the floor including knocking down a three.

The run kept going with the Cougars eventually going up 23-8 midway through the first half. CSU's run would end at 19-1 after Juan Rivas broke it up with North Georgia's first field goal in over eight minutes.

Baker did the most of the damage, but once he left the floor, Matthias Sigurdarson came in and didn't miss a beat. Sigurdarson hit back-to-back three's for the Cougars to help stretch the lead into double digits.

North Georgia (4-12, 2-5) inched its way back into the game after scoring nine straight points including getting a three-point play from Corey Green after drawing a foul on a layup attempt.

In a 27-20 game, JaCori Payne knocked down a three ball to push CSU's lead back out to 10 with 4:46 to play in the half. The Nighthawks were able to get two free throws before the Cougars scored nine of the next 11 points to go ahead 39-24. Arben Camaj got going scoring five of the nine points for the Cougars.

North Georgia was able to hit a three and two free throws before the half ended, but CSU took a comfortable 41-29 lead into the break.

The second half was more of the same as the Cougars quickly stretched the lead to 20-points (54-34) after a Brent Jackson three-pointer at the 15:39 mark.

Columbus State continued to use the three ball to build an ever larger lead, eventually going up 29 (76-47) on the heels of a 15-2 run. Sigurdarson, Camaj and Jackson each hit from downtown during the spurt.

In the closing minutes, a Markis Boyd layup gave the Cougars their largest lead of the game pushing the margin out to 33 points (92-59).

Four players were in double figures for the Cougars led by Baker's 27. The Columbus native had one of his best shooting nights of the year going 9-for-11 from the field while also grabbing seven rebounds.

Camaj had a season high 15 points after making three three-pointers. The forward also had eight rebounds.

Payne and Jackson scored 13 and 10, respectively. DeMarcus McVay had 10 rebounds to go along with eight points and three assists and blocks.

Corey Green had a double-double for North Georgia with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Ebo Smith had 12 while Rivas added 11.

As a team, CSU shot 50.7 percent (36-of-71) and an even 50 percent (10-for-20) from three.

North Georgia shot 34.3 percent (23-for-67) from the floor, but hit only 4-of-20 three-point attempts.
 
Columbus State will return to action on Saturday, Jan. 16 taking on Augusta. Tipoff is set for 3:30 p.m. in Augusta.