st. Paul, minn. - with 4.8 seconds to play, junior point guard mike cunningham (minneapolis, minn.) pulled up from just inside the arc and outside of the right elbow and buried a game winning jumper over a defender half a foot taller. The shot gave concordia university a 50-48 lead and on minnesota, crookston's ensuing possession, bryce cummings was stripped by sammy ricks as cu held on despite a poor shooting night. box score
it was cunningham's explosive play down the stretch that propelled concordia. The 6-4 guard who is the only point in the northern sun to jump at the opening tip scored seven of concordia's final nine points in the last five minutes - none bigger than the clutch jumper he skied over umc's bruce felts, a long 6-10 post player.
cunningham finished with a game-high 16 points on 7-15 shooting and had three key offensive rebounds.
as a team, the golden bears shot just 32.1 percent (17-53) from the floor, 16.7 percent (2-12) from three-point distance and 66.7 percent (14-21) at the line.
second half offensive rebounding helped concordia as they pulled down 11 offensive rebounds on 17 missed field goals and five missed free throws. While it only amounted to a 6-3 edge in second chance points for the game, that three-point margin was key in the narrow win.
junior forward craig heiman (marshall, wis.) logged a double-double for the first time this season, scoring and pulling down 10 rebounds. He struggled from the floor as he didn't score at least 15 points for the first time all season, shooting 3-15 from the field and 1-4 from behind the arc. He did dish out three assists and added four of his rebounds on the offensive glass.
heiman's 10 points pull him to 39 points shy of 1,000 for his career.
cu's leading rebounder, junior point guard sammy ricks (st. Paul, minn.) grabbed seven more and dropped in 10 points while dishing a pair of assists. His final statistic recorded was the most vital of the game, though, as he picked up his third steal picking cummings' pocket as time wound down on the golden eagles.
junior quentin barfield and sophomore chris pfeifer each scored six points off the bench.
minnesota, crookston's leading scorer, joe paschka, came off the bench and provided 11 points in just 19 minutes of play. Felts, the 6-10 post for umc, was difficult to stop with a solid jump shot that kept cu off balance. He finished with 10 points and was 4-9 from the floor and also provided three blocked shots. Two of his blocks came in the second half and he was 3-4 from the field in the second half as well.
the golden eagles' shooting night was markedly better than concordia's, but still fell short of a solid performance. Umc shot 38.5 percent (20-52) from the field, 33.3 percent (3-9) from three and 55.6 percent (5-9) from the line.
combined, the two teams turned the ball over just 17 times, concordia turning it over only seven times. Cu registered just five assists on the night, though while umc assisted on 11 of their 20 field goals.
the game featured 15 ties and five lead changes with neither team leading by more than six.
concordia looks to get their offensive stride back tomorrow night when they host minnesota state moorhead at 8 p.m. At gangelhoff center. The dragons were defeated tonight at st. Cloud state.
