Columbia International University Athletics

The Columbia International University men's basketball team went into tonight's game riding a two game winning streak. The Rams traveled to Charlotte, NC to take on Berkeley College in the MLK Classic. The Knights are back-to-back USCAA National Champions and have lost one game over the past three seasons, but the Rams came into the game looking to give them their second. The game was competitive all throughout, but the Rams fell 84-66.

The Rams started the game off right as they scored the first four points thanks to layups from Druw Rollings and Damarcus Gay. However, after that the Knights would go on an 11-0 run. Gabe Kirk would snap the Knights run, but the Knights would hold onto the lead. At the 14:10 mark the Rams cut the lead to two, 14-12, as Rollings was able to kick the ball out to Zachary Baker for a three. Just a minute later the duo of Rollings and Baker were at it again, but this time it was Rollings who hit the three with Baker picking up the assist.

The Knights would then start to gain some momentum as they would go on small runs and push their lead into double figures. The Rams would cut it to single digits on two occasion, but when halftime rolled around the Knights had a 46-31 lead.

The Rams came out of halftime looking to trim the Knights lead, but unfortunately for the Rams each time they scored so would the Knights. The Rams would almost trim the Knights lead to single digits again after a layup from Juraj Rovis, but the Knights still led by 11, 65-54. 

With just over two and a half minutes remaining the Rams were able to cut their deficit to ten points as Micah Banks converted a layup in the paint. However, over the final two minutes the Knights would go on a 10-2 run to get the final score of 84-66.

Columbia International shot 39.7% (23-of-58) from the field and were 12-of-17 from the free throw line...Berkeley shot 53.1% (34-of-64) for the game and were 4-of-17 from the beyond the arch...The Rams would score 30 of their points in the paint...Micah Banks led the Rams with 18 points...Druw Rollings had 12 points and seven rebounds...Ricardo Ayuso led the Knights with 21 points.

The Rams will be back on the court tomorrow as they play their second game of the MLK Classis. The Rams will take on Carolina Christian College at 1 p.m.