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COLUMBUS – Capping the regular season, the Columbus State University men's basketball team fell 84-67 at home to Clayton State on Saturday. The Peach Belt Conference contest was played in the Lumpkin Center.
Darius Joell finished with a team-high 19 points on the afternoon.
JaCori Payne added 18 of his own.
"Give Clayton State a lot of credit today," head coach
Robert Moore said. "They came in here and executed well and had an answer for every time we made a push."
Columbus State (9-16, 9-13 PBC) fell behind right out of the gates, as the Lakers jumped in front 11-2 through the first four minutes. Joell helped rally the Cougars back though, scoring five points in a 7-1 run that had CSU back within three two minutes later.
Clayton State (21-5, 19-3) kept pushing and eventually doubled up the Cougars at 28-14 with less than seven minutes until halftime.
Vic Ellis canned a 3-pointer to help jumpstart a 7-0 CSU stretch that immediately cut the deficit in half, and the Cougars were down just eight at the half.
Clayton State started the second half with seven straight points of its own to push the margin back to double figures, and the Lakers held a double-digit lead for the remainder of the game.
The Cougars finished the afternoon at 39.7 percent (25-for-63) from the field, knocking down eight 3-pointers.
Columbus State is the No. 8 seed in the upcoming Peach Belt Conference Tournament. The Cougars will get a rematch with Clayton State on Wednesday in Morrow. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
