Cougars take down Southern Regional 78-61, improve to 4-3

It was a big win for the Cougars yesterday in the DiBart Gym, as they pushed their record over the .500 mark. The game versus Southern could very well have been the best played game for the Cougars all year. As a team, East shot an impressive 15-27 from the three point line, and all five starters had big games.

After one quarter of play, the Cougars were up 11. But then, Southern went on a run and got the Cougar lead down to 6 at half time. At one point early on in the second half, East was up four. But everyone kept their composure, and by the end of the third quarter, the Cougars were up 17.

Chris Santo ('11) poured in 20 points and had 8 rebounds, while Marc Schlessel ('12) continued his stellar sophomore campaign with 14 points on 4-7 shooting from three. Although he only scored six points, point guard Seth Friedman ('10) really did a good job controlling the offense, as he dished out 14 assists. After dealing with mononucleosis for the past couple of weeks, Jake Gurkin ('12) made an early return from his sickness in the Cougar's last game versus Cherokee. In the game yesterday versus Southern, he played extremely well, scoring a career- high 19 points on 5-6 shooting from the field (4-4 from three) and 5-7 shooting from the free throw line. Gurkin and Schlessel have really been holding their own early on in their rookie campaigns.
Lastly, guard Ben Gerstein ('10) scored 19 points on 7-14 shooting (5-11 from three). As is usually the norm, Gerstein played steller defense for the duration of the game.

The Cougars' next game is Tuesday, January 12th versus Eastern at Eastern. I will post the game time when I find out.

Players of the Game: Jake Gurkin ('12) and Ben Gerstein ('10)- Most would probably agree that both Gurkin and Gerstein put in two of the better individual performances for the Cougars all year. Gurkin set a career high in points scored for a game while shooting 4-4 from three. Gerstein shot 50% from the field and really worked hard on the defense end as he pressed for most of the game.