Mountain Lions get first victory of season.

Suffering through over a month of moral victories finally paid off for the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs men's basketball team.

Stephon Hicks made four consecutive free throws and Trey White stole the ball to prevent the potentially tying 3-pointer as the Mountain Lions won their first game of the season, 76-73 over the Chadron State Eagles in double overtime.

Hicks' first two free throws game CU-Colorado Springs a six-point lead with 36 seconds left in the second overtime. After Chadron State's Dave Camadini hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to three, Hicks drew a foul as the shot clock wound down. His second pair of free throws increased the lead to 76-73 with seven seconds left. Camadini tried to get another 3-pointer off, but White's steal cracked the goose egg in the Mountain Lions' win column.

But all of that would have been moot had it not been for David Goodenberger's play in the first overtime.

With Chadron State leading by two with just under three minutes left, Goodenberger grabbed an offensive rebound and put the ball back in to tie the game. The Eagles retook the lead a minute later, but a Goodenberger jumper again tied the score at 65. Just for good measure, Goodenberger stole the ball from Chadron State's Darnell Williams in the waning seconds of the period.

Goodenberger finished with a game-high 13 rebounds and also scored 13 points. Jack Bain led the Mountain Lions (1-8, 1-3 RMAC) with 22 points and also had 12 rebounds and seven steals. Dan Deveau added a career-high 17 points.

Eric Griffo led Chadron State (6-6, 2-2) with 20 points and nine rebounds.

After going into halftime trailing 37-32, CU-Colorado Spring opened the second period with an impressive 18-2 run during which Bain scored nine points. Chadron State whittled away at the lead, finally managing to send the game into overtime by holding CU-Colorado Springs scoreless over the final 3:30.

Although the Mountain Lions maintained a positive attitude during the difficult start to this season, ridding themselves of the winless no doubt made the long bus ride home much easier to bear.

Because moral victories are simply no replacement for the real thing.