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By:
Josh Fuller
COLUMBUS – Playing in its only exhibition game, the Columbus State University men's basketball team rolled to an 111-62 victory over the Fort Benning Patriots. The action took place inside the Lumpkin Center.
Four Cougars scored in double figures paced by
JaCori Payne's 20. Payne went 6-for-10 from beyond the arc.
Darius Joell (17),
Rudy Winters (14),
Arben Camaj (14) and
Markis Boyd (12) all had good scoring nights. Payne also tallied seven assists, five rebounds and four steals.
Marcus Dixon had a team best seven rebounds.
"We shot the ball very well in the second half and I was proud to see the corrections that we made at halftime," said head coach
Robert Moore. "We were really inconsistent at times in the first half, but in all this was a good tune up before the season starts on Wednesday."
The Cougars struggled out of the gates holding just a 14-12 lead near the midpoint of the first half. After a quick 6-0 run by CSU, Fort Benning was able to respond scoring six unanswered points to tie the game at 20 with just 8:44 until the break.
However, Columbus State began pulling away. CSU went on an impressive 12-0 run over the next two-plus minutes. The spurt was started by an
Antonio Bishop dunk, while Payne nailed a three-pointer. The Cougars were able to extend the lead to 44-28 at the break.
Columbus State shot 56.1 percent in the second half as its outscored the Patriots 67-34 over the final 20 minutes. Late in the half, the Cougars went on a 13-2 run to extend their lead out to 40 (95-55). CSU hit three three-pointers in the spurt, including two from Payne.
Boyd scored the final points in the contest to push the lead to 111-62, the largest lead for the Cougars in the game.
For the game, CSU shot 50 percent (40-for-79) overall and 43.9 percent (18-for-41) from three. Thirteen of the threes came in the second half for the Cougars. Fort Benning shot just 34.9 percent (22-for-63).
