Rose, CC men turn over new leaf, stun UCCS
Nick Rose knows all to well the feeling of watching a lead slip away.
On Friday, the Colorado College junior guard perhaps saw a turning point in Tigers basketball, scoring a team-high 23 points in a stunning, 78-72 victory at Division II Colorado-Colorado Springs at the Lions’ Den.
“When I was a freshman, we went 0-24, and last year, we went 5-20,” said Rose, from Lakewood. “We learned a lot about losing. The feeling has been different this year, ever since the first day of workouts. We practiced late-game situations, learning how to finish a game on top. It’s nice to see it work on the court.”
The Tigers built a 61-48 lead with 6:17 left, then scored the final 17 points from the free-throw line, missing just one shot along the way as the Mountain Lions did their best to rally.
“We waited too long to wake up,” said UCCS senior forward Cole Smith, who scored 16 points before fouling out with 1:32 left. “We never got into a groove, right from the start. We definitely have a lot to work on.”
Jeremiah Waters scored 14 points, Ryan Harty added 11 and Brady Ohlsen and Jarrell Sweet scored 10 apiece for the balanced Tigers, who won their season opener for the second year in a row.
Jordan McClung paced the Mountain Lions (0-1) with 23 points, keyed by a game-high five 3-pointers. Scott Sublousky chipped in with 11 points and Ben Feilmeier added 10, but UCCS couldn’t recover from 25 turnovers and 37-percent shooting.
“This is the first D-II win since I’ve been here, and probably the first in a long time,” Rose said. “I can’t describe how happy I feel. It’s unreal. We’re all fueled by our doubters, and we have big goals this year. We just have to build on it.”CC scored the final 10 points of the first half to take a 35-29 lead at intermission. Rose hit a pair of 3-pointers during the run, including a 22-footer from the left corner, set up by a steal by Harty, with 29 seconds left that sent the Tigers into the locker room flying high.
And it continued in the second half as the Tigers opened up an 11-point twice.
Down by 13, the Mountain Lions went on a 9-0 run — on three consecutive three-point plays — to cut the deficit to 61-57.
UCCS never got any closer, thanks to CC’s clutch 19-of-22 free-throw shooting in the second half.
