Colorado Springs, Colo. -- The Concordia University Chicago men's basketball team tipped-off their season with a trip out west to take on the Colorado College Tigers. It was a game of scoring runs on both ends, with the Cougars falling just short by a final score of 60-59. 

It was a slow start to the first half for the Cougars, trailing by as many as 16 points at the midway point. They were unable to generate a lot of scoring, shooting just 1-11 from beyond the arc over the first 20 minutes.

They remained resilient, piecing together a 10-0 scoring run to keep things within reach. To overcome the struggles from three-point territory, the team took advantage of their size in the paint, where they out-scored the Tigers 12-6. Junior Tavarus Davis-Williams (Fox Lake, Ill.) was a big part of that, shooting 3-3 from the field and leading all Cougar scorers with eight first-half points. 

CUC began to piece things together after going into the half trailing by nine. Junior Izak Ruddell (Saint Joseph, Mich.) opened things up with his second three-pointer of the evening and the team was off and running. The game quickly turned into a back-and-forth battle that featured three ties and six lead changes. 

The Cougars were more selective with their shots in the second half, shooting 11-23 from the floor and 3-7 from deep. They stepped things up on the defensive end as well, holding the Tigers to 32 percent shooting and just 25 percent from deep. 

The CUC bench also came to life in the final 20 minutes, out-scoring the Tigers' 21-14. This charge was led by seniors Landen Gladney (Chicago, Ill.), Jalen Meeks (Aurora, Colo.) and sophomore Emanuel Wilson (Wheaton, Ill.), as the trio combined for 19 of those points. 

At the under eight media timeout, the Cougars held their biggest lead of the night at 10. The Tigers answered this with a 13-0 run out of the timeout, jumping back in the lead for the first time since the 13:51 mark with just over two and a half minutes to play. 

The Cougars regained the lead on a layup from senior Jordan Matthews (Chicago, Ill.) with 26 seconds remaining, but the Tigers immediately answered with a layup on their own at the other end to take the lead for good at 60-59. 

Notes

• The Cougars out-scored the Tigers 28-16 over the course of the game. 

• Gladney led all scorers with 11.

• Wilson provided quality play off the bench, scoring six points and leading the team with seven points. 

• Davis-Williams and Ruddell were the other Cougars in double-figures, both with 10. 

• Freshman Jacob Collicott (Lafayette, Ind.) scored his first collegiate bucket in the second half. His +/- of 17 was best on the team. 

• The team forced 17 steals, led by Davis-Williams with five. Matthews added four of his own. 

The team returns to action next Saturday, Nov. 13 when they travel to Knox College to take on the Prairie Fire. Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m. and a stream will be available on cucougars.com/coverage.