Story by NAIA Office

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – (Box score) No. 2 seed Columbia (Mo.) raced to a 23-point halftime lead and cruised to a 94-68 victory against No. 7 LSU Shreveport (La.), Wednesday evening in the first round of the 2016 Buffalo Funds-NAIA Division I Men’s Basketball National Championship. The Cougars will face third-seeded William Penn (Iowa) on Friday, March 18 at 2:15 p.m. CDT.

Nathan Biggs came off the bench and hit eight-of-nine field goal attempts to lead Columbia with 22 points, while Nic Reynolds hit five three-point shots and tallied 17 points to go along with five rebounds. Travis Vogt added 14 points and five rebounds for the Cougars, and Preston Whitfield chipped in with 11 points.

“Our guys showed a lot of spirit,” said Columbia head coach Bob Burchard. “We did a great job controlling boards, which is what we talked about before the game. Our goal was to hold them to one shot each possession and we were able to do that the majority of the time.”

Columbia (29-5) never trailed in the contest, scoring on its opening possession and claiming a 14-6 lead at the 13:54 mark. The first double-digit advantage came less than two minutes later on a three-pointer by Reynolds, part of a 9-0 run over 1:36 to build a 27-11 lead.

The Cougars shot 62.5 percent in the first half (20 of 32), including seven three-point connections on 13 attempts (.538). Columbia finished the game 11-of-22 from beyond the arc, while limiting LSU Shreveport to a 3-for-24 clip (.125).

Columbia scored the final seven points of the first half to take a 55-32 lead into intermission. LSU Shreveport was able to trim the deficit to 16 points midway through the second half, but the Cougars answered with a trey by Vogt and led by no fewer than 17 points the rest of the way.

“I thought our effort was lacking in the first half,” said LSU Shreveport head coach Kyle Blankenship. “When you play on this stage, you have to play harder than you have ever played and we didn’t do that. Give Columbia credit. They ran their stuff and knocked down a lot of shots and they played very well.”

Tyrell Springer was the lone LSU Shreveport player in double figures, posting 17 points, four assists and two steals. Manny Martin and Josh Walker led the Pilots’ rebounding effort with five boards apiece.

LSU Shreveport finishes its year with an 18-14 record.

Game notes:
Columbia – Cougars avenged a 79-78 loss to LSU Shreveport in the quarterfinal round of the 2013 NAIA National Championship...Two members of the 2016 Cougar tournament team played in that 2013 game; Chantel Stanciel, who scored six points, and Zach Rockers...The 94 points sets a program record for most single-game points scored at the national tournament...Nathan Biggs scored a season-high 22 points, and topped the 20-point mark for the first time this season...Cougars set a season-high with 55 first half points...Finished the regular season with the most wins in conference play of any team at the Division I level, tied with AMC foe Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.) at 18 conference victories...24 assists are most for a team at the National tournament since William Jewell (Mo.) had 28 assists in a first round game in 2011.

LSU Shreveport – Dropped third-straight NAIA National Championship First Round contest… Suffers worst lost in the postseason (26 points) as the Pilots are playing in their 20th championship game… With 17 points tonight, Tyrell Springer hit the 10-point plateau for the seventh-straight game… The 24 3-point attempts was three shy of a season-high… A team that ranked in the top five in the NAIA in rebounding margin (+9.5), Pilots finished with -10 in that column after Columbia grabbed a 39-29 edge… Posted 31 bench points in the game.