sioux falls, s.d. - senior forward craig heiman (marshall, wis.) moved into second on concordia university's career scoring list as he poured in a game-high 21 points giving him 1,375 in his career, just 68 points shy of the all-time record. He had to earn all 21 of those points, however, and he was the only golden bear in double-figures as they were stopped cold by augustana 85-63 at sioux falls arena in front of 2,044 of their hometown crowd in the nsic holiday hoopsfest. Concordia falls to 2-1 on the year while augustana improves their unbeaten start to 4-0. box score
the game was deadlocked early at 14 until the vikings pulled away by using a 29-6 scoring run that lasted nearly eight and a half minutes. The result was an augustana 23 point lead, 43-20 with nearly three and a half to play until break.
augustana would jog into their locker room leading 47-27 as they committed only two first half turnovers while forcing 11 miscues by concordia. In fact, augie's assist-turnover mark of 10-2 was nearly opposite of cu's 3-11 disparity, a telling sign as the vikings held a 15-4 first half scoring edge off turnovers.
but the golden bears made their adjustments at the break and came out inspired in the second half, cutting a once 23 point viking lead to 10 by starting the half on a 14-4 run.
it was short lived, however as augustana answered with eight straight points before opening the lead back to 21, 65-44 with 9:18 to play.
concordia wouldn't trim the margin closer than 17 the rest of the way in taking their first defeat.
heiman finished the night a solid 9-16 from the floor and pulled down six rebounds, tying for the team lead on the glass with junior post dan vandervieren (eden prairie, minn.). Vandervieren was second on the squad in scoring with seven points and also had three rejections in 16 minutes off the bench.
heiman moved ahead of brian jamros (2001-05) who scored 1,371 in his career as a golden bear. Next on the list is jeff chamberlain, concordia's scoring, rebounding and assist leader with 1,443 points, concluding his four year career in 1997.
junior guard andrew kuderer (eden prairie, minn.) knocked down two three-pointers to provide spark of the bench, one of those coming during the strong second half start. He finished with six points and three assists in 18 minutes.
concordia finished the night with 13 assists to 20 turnovers as they improved their play in the second half by dishing 10 assists to their nine turnovers.
they reached 40 rebounds for the third time this year, pulling in 40 while augustana was more efficient with 43 including 15 on the offensive end.
free throws hurt concordia as they shot 10-20 as a team including multiple missed front-ends of one-and-one opportunities while augustana converted 18 of their 25 at the line.
concordia looks to rebound tomorrow night as they face the university of mary (n.d.) at 7:00 p.m. At elmen center on the campus of augustana college in the final day of the 2009 nsic holiday hoopsfest.
