seaside, calif. - for the second consecutive night on the west coast, concordia university (1-4) used a late 10-0 run to sneak back into the game. Tonight, the closest the golden bears would come, however, was four points down as they fell at california state university monterey bay (4-0) 86-80 on day two of the otter classic. box score
concordia trailed by as many as 14 when csumb's joe mitchell knocked down a jumper at 3:12 to play. But three-pointers by junior forward craig heiman (marshall, wis.) and junior guard sammy ricks (st. Paul, minn.) along with free throws by sophomore forward chris pfeifer (hopkins, minn.) cut the gap to six.
when the otters turned the ball over with just over a minute remaining, senior guard matt cadwell (st. Paul, minn.) hit a tough jumper near the left elbow and was fouled, banking the shot in to cut the margin to four, 80-76 with 49 seconds to play.
cadwell would miss the free throw and the otters converted a three-point play on the other end to sink concordia's comeback attempt.
heiman finished with 19 points despite playing only 22 minutes as he was saddled with four fouls for much of the second half.
he was the only golden bear to score in double-figures as eight other players scored between five and nine points for cu.
junior guard mike cunningham (minneapolis, minn.) was one of those eight players, scoring five points, but dishing out a game-high seven assists.
on the glass, the golden bears and otters were even with 30 team rebounds apiece. Cu was led by pfeifer with six while he added eight points on 3-5 shooting.
pfeifer, like heiman, also had four fouls. In fact, five golden bears had two fouls at the half and five players would finish the night with four fouls as well. No one fouled out for cu.
for the otters, steve monreal scored 18 and had six assists to lead a csumb team that had four in double-figures and two more with nine points each.
the aforementioned first half foul trouble sparked a csu monterey bay run before the intermission. With cu playing with numerous reserves on a squad that has relied on their top four scorers throughout the first few games of the season, the otters took advantage.
after ricks drained a jumper with just under four minutes to play in the half, it gave cu a 35-34 lead. Concordia would not score again until junior a.j. Allen (wichita, kan.) buried a jumper at the buzzer to end what turned into a 9-0 otter run.
early in the second half, concordia held csumb without a field goal for a stretch of nearly four minutes, but offensively didn't have the same spark as a night ago as cu couldn't come closer than five points during the strong defensive stretch.
for the game, concordia fired up 32 three-point attempts, sinking 10 for a 31 percent clip. The otters, meanwhile, countered by draining 10 three's as well, but in only 22 attempts which gave them better looks consistently inside.
the golden bears remain on the road next weekend when the open nsic play, traveling to upper iowa on friday, december 5 and winona state on saturday, december 6.
