Replenished Lineup Leads Cougars to 82-70 Victory


	Cougar Basketball Game Recap Replenished Lineup Leads Cougars to 82-70 Victory written by Dave Parsons, Sports Information Director Game Boxscore HOLLAND, Mich. (12-9-2011) - The Mount Vernon Nazarene University men's basketball team welcomed leading scorer senior guard Robbie Taylor and sophomore wing Austin Semple back to the lineup on Friday night as the pair combined to score 39 points to lead the Cougars to an 82-70 victory over Purdue University-North Central (Ind.) in the first round of the Hope (Mich.) College Invitational. The game went back and forth over the first eight minutes with the Panthers of Purdue-North Central (2-8) holding a 15-11 lead. Then, MVNU (5-6) closed the half on a 28-12 run to take a 39-27 advantage to the locker room at the break. Taylor *(left), who missed the team's previous game due to an injury, led the Cougars with 21 points in the first half as he went 7-for-8 from the field including 3-for-4 from 3-point range while also hitting all four of his free throw attempts. Semple, who was seeing his first action of the year after suffering a broken hand in the preseason, added eight points off the bench as he went 3-for-3 from the field and 2-for-2 at the charity stripe. MVNU shot 53.8 percent from the field (14-for-26), 50 percent from 3-point range (4-for-8), and made all seven free throw attempts. The Panthers were led by Nick Neal with 10 points, while Alphonse Futch added nine points. Purdue-North Central shot 44.4 percent from the field (12-for-27) and 30 percent from 3-point range (3-for-10). The Cougars' lead grew to as much as 43-30 early in the second half after sophomore post Caleb Williams made a pair of free throws with 18:22 still to play. At that point, the Panthers began to slowly chip away at the lead as they pulled within 54-51 on a steal and jumper by Mario Herron with 10:42 remaining. MVNU pushed the lead back to eight points on three occasions, but once again Purdue-North Central closed the gap to 67-64 with 3:42 to play after a jumper by Neal. Clinging to a 69-66 lead, the Cougars got four points from junior forward Zach Zeltman and a jumper from Semple as MVNU extended its lead back out to 75-66 with 1:40 left. From there, the Cougars were able to tack on points the rest of the way with junior guard Bryce Barnes contributing five points in the final 45 seconds as MVNU prevailed 82-70. Taylor finished with a season-high 25 points to lead the Cougars as he went 8-for-11 from the field and hit a trio of treys. Semple (right)* finished with 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting, and Barnes and senior forward Danil Zakhlebnyy contributed 11 and 10 points respectively. Williams also grabbed 12 rebounds to go with nine points, while Zeltman added eight points. MVNU shot 51.9 percent from the field (28-for-54), 31.3 percent from 3-point range (5-for-16), and 80.8 percent from the free throw line (21-for-26). Neal paced Purdue-North Central with 34 points, while Futch added 24 points as the duo scored all but 12 of the Panthers points on the evening. In fact, the rest of the team took just 16 shots combined while Neal and Futch fired up 41 field goal attempts. Purdue-North Central shot 45.6 percent from the field (26-for-57), 35.3 percent from 3-point range (6-for-17), and 80 percent at the free throw line (12-for-15). "We had a good first-half effort and it was nice to have a healthy Rob and an active Austin in the lineup," said MVNU coach Matt Moore as the Cougars snapped a five-game losing skid. "We will need a much more focused effort defensively in our game tomorrow, though." MVNU will play for the tournament title at 3 p.m. on Saturday against host Hope, who defeated Marian (Ind.) University 76-60 in Friday's other game to improve to 6-1 overall on the season.

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