Published: February 03, 2008 12:36 am      

Cougars survive Voorhees

DENMARK, S.C. — Mountain State withstood a push from fellow NAIA Independent Regional rival Voorhees for a 92-85 victory Saturday.

Behind 26 points from Adron Marshall and 22 from James Spencer, the NAIA No. 1 Cougars improved to 22-0 on the season.

“It’s always good to go on the road and get a win,” MSU coach Bob Bolen said. “Especially in a hostile environment. We played well. We executed well on offense. It was a good win for us.”

Five Cougars finished in double figures as Jason McGriff added 12 (10 in the second half), Denzel Lyles came off the bench for 11 and Jarvis Jackson added 10, all in the second half.

After leading 36-28 at the break, MSU watched the Tigers come all the way back to tie the score at 69-69.

But Tyrice Watkins and Lyles hit back-to-back treys.

“Tyrice has been huge for us all season, but a lot of times the things he does don’t show up on the stat sheet,” Bolen said. “He hit a big shot for us there and Denzel followed it up. That was a big stretch for us right there.”

Down the stretch MSU continually answered every Voorhees basket with a basket of its own, including a pair of big stickbacks by McGriff.

“We didn’t do a good job stopping them at times, but we executed really well on offense and we were able to keep the lead,” Bolen said.

Antwan Bolden led Voorhees (12-7) with 34 points and Cory Mikel had 17.

MSU returns to the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center Tuesday, hosting Southern Wesleyan at 7 p.m.