the golden bears ran into one of the hottest teams in the nation when the #16 winona state warriors defeated cu 80-64 on saturday evening at the gangelhoff center in st. Paul. Junior guard kyle marxhausen led concordia as he recorded his double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds in the loss.
the warriors took control of the game early as wsu thwarted nearly every layup attempt by the bears with nine first half blocks, five of them from john smith. The warriors led by as much as 18 points in the half until senior colby swanson drilled a three-pointer at the buzzer to cut the score to 46-31. Swanson scored the last five points of the half for concordia.
but concordia clawed their way back into the game, going on a 13-2 run led by senior forward ty thomas and marxhausen, who scored six and five points, respectively during the run. The run cut the score to 51-46 with 15:20 to play.
wsu responded with six unanswered points to push the lead back to 11 but cu fought back yet again with an 8-2 run that spanned nearly four minutes.
but five points was as close as the bears could come to winona state as the warriors closed out the game with efficient free throw shooting down the stretch while the bears went cold from the field, scoring just five points over the final 7:51 and scoreless for the last 2:03 of the contest.
marxhausen scored his 16 points on 6-12 shooting from the field and he hit 2-4 from downtown. He also had a pair of assists, a block and a steal in a team-high 36 minutes of floor time.
thomas was hot early, hitting seven of his first 10 shots for a quick 14 points, but foul trouble limited his second half minutes and he went cold down the stretch as he hit 1-9 the rest of the way. Thomas equaled marxhausen with 16 points in just 21 minutes while also pulling down four rebounds and dishing a pair of assists.
senior center aaron ackerson had a hot hand in the post as he tied his career-high with 14 points on 6-8 shooting. He also grabbed five rebounds, had a block and a steal.
in just his second start of the season, junior forward marlon walker snared eight rebounds and added four points in 27 minutes of play.
the bench was led by senior point guard rj allen as he dished out a team-high three assists and had a pair of blocks to go with his four points in 21 minutes. Swanson's five points in six minutes were instrumental in sparking the golden bear comeback.
the bears, who are a perfect 8-0 when outrebounding opponents on the season, saw their second half rebounding advantage disappear as the warriors finished the game with a 36-34 edge on the boards. Late in the game, the bears led 32-28 on the glass.
blocked shots were a huge factor in the first half as wsu controlled the paint, but they came up with just one rejection in the second half, finishing with 10 compared to concordia's seven.
the warriors were led by john smith, who scored 15 points, had 13 rebounds, six blocks and three assists. Zach malvik scored a game-high 22 points and hit 8-9 at the line. All five of wsu's starters scored in double figures but they had just two points off the bench.
concordia looks to snap their five game skid this tuesday, jan. 31 when they play host to north central university at the gangelhoff center. Game time is 7 p.m. And there will be a live audio feed on the internet.
