New rotation revving up Cougars before tourney

The tattoo on Columbia College forward Bryant Chambly’s left biceps reads “B-Nice,” while the matching tattoo on his right biceps says “B-Nasty.” It was fitting that his right arm — the nasty one — recorded his two thunderous blocks Thursday night at Southwell Complex. The most impressive might have been stonewalling Hannibal-LaGrange’s Haakon Skuggedal as Skuggedal went up for a dunk in the first half of the Cougars men’s basketball team’s 64-52 victory.

“(The tattoos) had to do with my basketball prime. People said, ‘Oh, he’s a nice player and a nasty dunker’ back when I had my good legs,” Chambly said.

If the early returns from coach Bob Burchard’s new substitution pattern are any indication, Chambly, who scored 14 points Thursday, should be able to keep his good legs a little longer.

During last week’s road game against American Midwest Conference leader Illinois-Springfield, Burchard started using a hockey-style substitution pattern, dividing Columbia College’s 10 available players into two squads of five. That night, the Cougars (15-15, 7-5 in AMC), who were blown out by Illinois-Springfield at home in January, only lost by three.

“It gives us more energy,” said Columbia guard Louis McCrary, who scored 13 points. “Five players have energy instead of having four tired players on the court and one fresh one.”

Burchard, who admitted that the team has been struggling with “trying to be a team” all year, tried the new strategy as a way to unite the team.

“I thought maybe this was the best way to deal with that, was to get all 10 players involved,” Burchard said.

“I think there’s a little bit of a competitive thing for (the two squads). Our energy has been up, and when you get to the end of the season, that’s really important.”

All 10 Columbia players played at least 17 minutes Thursday, and the increased second-half energy and focus paid off. After leading by just one at halftime, Columbia held Hannibal-LaGrange to just two points in the first six minutes of the second half, and then rattled off an 11-0 run to take control.

“We’re all playing for each other,” Chambly said. “We hadn’t been doing that three or four games ago.”

The victory earned Columbia College a home game in the AMC tournament, which begins Wednesday.