The Colorado College men's basketball team collected its first conference win on Friday night by defeating Southwestern University 66-55 in Georgetown, Texas, behind a 20-point performance from junior Asher Nofziger. 
 
Nofziger led all scorers by dishing out his sixth 20+ point game of the season. The Denver native was 8-13 from the floor and finished with three rebounds, an assist and a steal. Senior Devin Philio led the team with nine rebounds, and junior Corey Shivley scored a career-high nine points. 

"We really challenged our guys after the Santa Cruz game around our togetherness and our effort on the defensive end of the floor," head coach Jeff Conarroe said. "I thought we stepped up and answered the call. The guys played so hard, everything was contested and they had each other's backs. The effort on the glass and 17 assists say it all. I'm proud of our team's response." 

CC outrebounded SWU 33-23 and shot 42.3 percent (11-26) from three-point range. 
 
CC's defense limited SWU to only nine made shots in the first half, while the Tiger offense made six three-pointers, two of which came from Shivley. Nofziger led the team with 10 points in the half. The Pirates jumped out to an early 7-2 lead, which the Tigers countered with an 8-2 run to take a 10-9 lead with a Leo Magnus three-pointer with 11:26 left in the half. 
 
The Tigers never trailed after that point and went on another run over the next five minutes to take a 22-12 lead with 5:56 left. 
 
SWU responded with back-to-back baskets to cut the lead down to six, but Scott Ruegg responded with consecutive steals and fast-break layups. Orion Samikoglu drilled a three-pointer on the next play to give the Tigers a 29-18 lead. 
 
CC took a 34-25 lead into the half. In the second half, Ty Hendler jump-started the scoring with a three-pointer 41 seconds into the half. He finished with eight points and four rebounds. 
 
Hendler drained another three a couple of minutes later to bring the lead to a game-high 12 points with 17:01 left. 
 
Still up by double-digits with 12:05 remaining, senior Adrian Price scored his second basket to make the lead 52-39. Price finished with four points and four rebounds in 12 minutes on the court. 
 
CC continued to control the game's pace, not allowing the Pirates to come within nine points as the clock wound down. A Hendler jump shot with 3:39 left ballooned the lead to a game-high 16 points. 
 
The Tigers eventually capped the 66-55 win to end the two-game losing streak and improve to 5-7. They will travel to Seguin, Texas, to take on the Bulldogs of Texas Lutheran on Sunday, Jan. 12^th, at 1 pm MT.