Colorado College’s one-two punch of CooXooEii Black (Arapaho) and Aaron Acosta combined for 49 points to lift the Tigers to a 70-55 victory over Johnson & Wales University in a Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference men’s basketball game on Friday night at the Wildcat Center.
Black, who connected on eight of 16 field-goal attempts and nine of 11 free throws, led CC with 25 points. It marked the seventh time this season as well as the sixth time in the last seven games the senior forward scored 20 or more points.
Acosta, who was 4-for-9 from behind the arc, finished with 24 points. The sophomore guard eclipsed the 20-point mark for the third time in the last four games as well as the fourth time overall this season.
He also lead the Tigers with eight rebounds and three assists.
Acosta pumped in 10 points in less than seven minutes as Colorado College utilized an early 18-4 run to race to a 20-6 lead.
JWU pulled to within six points after Kaleb Atherley scored on a layup with 2:42 remaining in the first half, but Colorado College answered with six consecutive points to build a 34-22 cushion with 64 seconds to play before halftime.
After trailing by as many as 13 points early in the second half, the Wildcats trimmed their deficit to 52-44 with a little under eight minutes to play.
However, back-to-back buckets by Black and a triple by Jack McRoskey off a feed from Black gave the Tigers what was for the moment their largest lead of the half at 60-46.