st. Paul, minn. - a three-pointer with 1.5 seconds to play in regulation by junior forward craig heiman (marshall, wis.) tied the score at 77 and host concordia university (6-4) went on to defeat northwestern college (minn.) 88-84 on thursday evening at the gangelhoff center. Earlier in the evening, heiman became the 14th member of concordia's 1,000 point club before scoring a game-high 28 points to lead the golden bears. box score
heiman buried five three-pointers in the game, none bigger than dagger at the end of regulation. He also made all five of his free throws, grabbed six rebounds and had five assists.
northwestern nearly had concordia put away in the second half, leading by six with the ball when nwc's stephen hanson misfired on a three-pointer with 1:34 to play. Hanson led nwc with 26 points off the bench, shooting 11-21 from the floor.
on the offensive end, 24 seconds ticked off the clock before junior guard mike cunningham (minneapolis, minn.) was fouled by hanson, putting him on the free throw line. He made only one of two, and cu was still in a five point hole with 70 seconds to go.
cunningham would score a career-high 22 points and equaled a career-best nine rebounds. He also had four assists and three steals. Cunningham converted nine of his 13 field goal attempts.
but a hanson turnover forced by cunningham on an errant pass falling out of bounds on the baseline allowed heiman to get fouled to reach the foul line. He converted both free throws giving concordia life, trailing 75-72 with 34 seconds on the clock.
with concordia looking to trap and force a turnover, hanson broke free for a breakaway dunk with 22 seconds left, seemingly putting the exclamation point with northwestern looking for the d-iii vs. D-ii upset.
the golden bears' heiman even misfired for cu on the offensive end and after a pair of fouls, nwc was at the line in the bonus. But eric garst missed the front end of a one-and-one with 12 seconds remaining and cunningham went the distance for a layup at the other end six seconds later to bring cu with three, 77-74 with 6.6 seconds left.
junior guard sammy ricks (st. Paul, minn.) jumped in front of the inbounds pass and cu called timeout at 5.9. The inbounds went to heiman and he dialed up from near-nba range, sinking the tying bucket.
in the overtime, concordia took the lead on the first possession with a heiman layup and they never relinquished the lead.
it was the 54th meeting in the series history that dates back to northwestern's first season of basketball in 1973-74. The eagles have dominated the series, winning 33 of the meetings while concordia picks up their 21st. It was the first time they had played since the 2000-01 season, a concordia victory.
concordia had one other player reach double-figures, junior forward thomas bassett (denison, iowa). Bassett added 11 points on efficient 5-7 shooting in 15 minutes. Sophomore forward matt hackl (seymour, wis.) added eight off the bench, hitting a pair of three-pointers in the process.
the golden bears only turned the ball over nine times in the game while dishing 19 assists and doubling-up the eagles in steals, with an 8-4 edge.
free throw shooting down the stretch was vital. Concordia started the game hitting four of their first 10 at the line but finished strong, hitting their last six charity attempts.
cu dialed up for 11 three-pointers in 28 attempts, a 39.3 percent clip. Northwestern countered with 7-15 long distance shooting (46.7%).
northwestern's brian lecheler scored 20 points and had five assists while shooting 7-12 from the floor and reid berens had the games only double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds.
concordia continues to play solid division iii competition on tuesday, december 30 when they host the fourth-ranked team in the nation, unbeaten st. Thomas, at 7 p.m. At gangelhoff.
