Cam Baker scores 41, but Columbus State falls to Georgia Southwestern

Baker scores career-high 41

By DANA BARKER

sports@ledger-enquirer.com

Bolstered by making a whopping 17 of 29 3-point shots, visiting Georgia Southwestern (6-6, 2-3) handed Columbus State (10-2, 4-1) just its second loss of the season and first Peach Belt Conference defeat in a 109-104 game at the Lumpkin Center on Thursday night.

The Hurricanes hit more than two-thirds of their shots in the second half after heading to the locker room down 49-45 as they were a torrid 21 of 31 from the field, finishing the game 39 of 61 for a 63.9 percent clip.

The loss spoiled career nights by both senior guard Cam Baker and sophomore guard JaCori Payne. Baker dropped 41 points, the biggest individual performance by a CSU player in 12 years, dating back to Yandel Brown's 43-point game against Tuskegee in 2004. Baker finished 16 of 23 from the field and a perfect 7 of 7 from the free-throw line. It was easily the biggest game in his hometown since his high school days as a Kendrick Cherokee.

"I felt good today. Coming off a 30-point game over the weekend, I felt like I needed to come in and keep the intensity up," said Baker.

Payne also had a career

best 23 points on the night, which was key after scoring just a combined three points in the Cougars' last two games at Francis Marion and Armstrong.

"I just came out focused. I wanted to bounce back from the weekend," said Payne.

Moore tipped his hat to the torrid shooting performance by the Hurricanes.

"I thought Georgia Southwestern came in with a great game plan. They spread us out, and they had shooters," he said.

The Cougars finished the night 8 for 21 from beyond the three-point arc. Moore said the Cougars didn't deviate from the plan even with the barrage of triples from the Hurricanes. The Cougars themselves had a great night offensively, with Brent Jackson's 14 points and Darren Daniel's 10-point effort joining Baker and Payne in double figures.

"I thought we played exactly to our game plan offensively," said Moore. "Defensively, though, I thought we were out of place a lot of times. We'll go back and watch the film and see what we need to work on.

"I've been stressing defense all year. You can't win championships if you don't play defense. I thought we gave them some easy buckets at times and in crucial situations where we needed to get a stop. But a lot of times, we had a hand in their face, and they still were putting down their shots."

Despite it being the Cougars' third game in five days, Moore says fatigue was not a factor.

"Moving the game back to Thursday gave our guys a good day of rest. I thought both teams were on full. I just think we didn't get the stops we needed to win the game. I don't think fatigue had anything to do with it."

Moore and the Cougars now turn their attention to Georgia College (10-3, 3-1 PBC), who visits the Lumpkin Center on Saturday for a 3:30 p.m. tipoff.

"We'll do a lot of shooting tomorrow and walk through their offensive and defensive principles. We'll get a lot of rest and be ready for Saturday," said Moore.

"I feel like we need to come out even harder next time. We can't take tomorrow off. There's no days off," said Baker.

GEORGIA SOUTHWESTERN (6-6, 2-3 PBC)

Adam Thoseby 11-18 9-10 34; Brandon Price 8-9 3-4 22; Damien Leonard 7-12 0-0 20; Jure Gunjina 7-10 2-2 20; Terence Johnson 4-5 0-0 8; Karon Wright 2-5 0-0 5; Cade Towers 0-2 0-0 0; Devin Watson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 39-61 14-16 109.

COLUMBUS STATE (10-2, 4-1 PBC)

Cam Baker 16-23 7-7 41; JaCori Payne 8-10 4-4 23; Brent Jackson 4-9 4-6 14; Darren Daniel 4-8 1-2 10; DeMarcus McVay 4-6 1-4 9; Brentine Taylor 2-3 1-1 5; Arben Camaj 1-6 0-0 2; Matthias Sigurdarson 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 39-66 18-24 104.

Halftime--Columbus State 49-45. 3-point goals--Georgia Southwestern 17-29 (Damien Leonard 6-9; Jure Gunjina 4-6; Adam Thoseby 3-8; Brandon Price 3-3; Karon Wright 1-3), Columbus State 8-21 (JaCori Payne 3-3; Brent Jackson 2-7; Cam Baker 2-6; Darren Daniel 1-3; Matthias Sigurdarson 0-1; Arben Camaj 0-1). Fouled out--Georgia Southwestern-Brandon Price, Columbus State-None. Rebounds--Georgia Southwestern 29 (Jure Gunjina 8), Columbus State 25 (DeMarcus McVay 11). Assists--Georgia Southwestern 24 (Brandon Price 7), Columbus State 14 (Brent Jackson 5). Total fouls--Georgia Southwestern 21, Columbus State 19. Technical fouls--Georgia Southwestern-None, Columbus State-None. A-462

This story was originally published January 7, 2016 at 10:53 PM with the headline "Cam Baker scores 41, but Columbus State falls to Georgia Southwestern ."