Cougars roll in overtime after clutch 3-pointer

There was no chance that Louis McCrary was going to give the ball up.

“I always want the ball in my hands at the end, because I know that if I make a bad decision, it’s my fault,” McCrary said.

The Columbia College men’s basketball team was trailing 67-64 with 11.1 seconds left in regulation. McCrary, a Cougars guard, brought the ball up the right side, cut to the left wing and banked in a 3-pointer with a hand in his face.

“I got fouled,” McCrary contended.

“I was concentrating on the shot and then the foul.”

A foul wasn’t called, but the shot propelled third seed Columbia College to an 81-73 overtime victory over sixth seed Williams Baptist in the first round of the American Midwest Conference tournament Wednesday night at Southwell Complex.

“We practiced that a couple of times yesterday with Louis and Marcus (Bradford),” said Bryant Chambly, who finished with 24 points and 13 rebounds.

Up until the shot, Columbia College had struggled once again with inconsistent play, letting Williams Baptist hang around for much of the game, but Chambly knew that once McCrary’s three fell through, the Cougars weren’t going to lose.

“He’s hit big shots all year. That was a season-saving shot,” Chambly said, “He deserves all the headlines tomorrow.

“There was no chance that (Williams Baptist was) ever going to get close again.”

McCrary, a sophomore, joined the Cougars at the beginning of the semester after transferring from Allen County Community College. He said he had offers from Division II schools, but since they weren’t offering scholarships until the fall, he decided to look elsewhere. He also chose Columbia College over playing professionally overseas, where he could have made as much as $30,000 a month.

“I chose Columbia because of the education, and I could continue playing basketball,” McCrary said. “Money talks, but there’s no guarantee, especially if you get hurt.”

McCrary, a Macon, Ga., native, has just started once this season despite averaging 13 points per game. But he found himself playing point guard with Columbia College’s first unit in the second half after coach Bob Burchard was forced to move away from his new substitution pattern.

“We’ve been sticking with the five (in) and five (out) and five and five, but we had to change it up and had to switch the rotation around,” Burchard said.

The win advances Columbia College to the semifinals of the AMC tournament, where they will play second seed McKendree at 7 Friday night at McKendree.

“Right now, my three favorite words are ‘practice tomorrow four o’clock’ instead of ‘check in your stuff,’ ” Burchard said.