sioux falls, s.d. - the golden bear men's basketball team committed 18 turnovers while forcing only six as the marauders turned that into a 25-4 deficit in points off turnovers as concordia university (2-2) dropped their second straight, 83-74, against the university of mary (2-3) on sunday evening at elmen center on the campus of augustana college in the final day of the nsic holiday hoopsfest. The marauders shot 84.6% (22-26) from the field and 92.3% (12-13) at the line in the second half to offset concordia's 55.9% (19-34) solid second half shooting. box score
concordia started hot with a 9-0 lead as senior mike cunningham (minneapolis, minn.) scored the first four before a layup by sophomore brent barz (johnston, iowa) with a three-pointer by junior andrew kuderer (eden prairie, minn.) capping off the strong start.
it was kuderer's first start of the season and he rewarded head coach kelly boe with 11 points on 4-7 shooting including 3-5 from three-point range while playing 32 minutes of action.
cunningham, meanwhile, was solid with 16 points on 8-13 shooting but was limited to 23 minutes before fouling out in the second half. He also committed five of concordia's 18 turnovers.
but the 9-0 start wouldn't hold up as the marauders stormed back with the next 10 points to take their first lead.
but another kuderer three-pointer with just over three and a half minutes to play in the half gave concordia their largest lead of 11, 29-18, capping a 12-0 run for concordia.
the marauders scored the last four points of the half, however, as eric erdmann put in a layup with just over a minute to play as cu held a 29-22 edge at the break.
u-mary wasted no time coming back strong in the second half as they knotted the score at 39 just over five minutes in. They reclaimed the lead for the first time since the 7:27 mark of the first half after forcing a cu turnover with danny sandvig scoring his fifth consecutive point making it 41-39.
the marauders went on a 13-4 run over two minutes to take the lead back.
but a big three-pointer by freshman isaiah thomas (fridley, minn.) but concordia back on top as the squads jostled back and forth for a four minute window. Thomas finished with six, knocking down a pair of three-pointers off the bench.
u-mary reclaimed the lead 50-49 with 10:27 to play and never looked back, pulling away on the back of erdmann who finished 8-10 shooting for a 21 point night.
down the stretch concordia tried to stay alive with senior guard sammy ricks (st. Paul, minn.) trading three's with the marauders. Ricks finished with a team-high 17 points and a season-high six assists while also securing seven rebounds and turning the ball over only once. He shot 7-12 from the field and 3-7 from long range.
senior forward craig heiman (marshall, wis.) was held scoreless in the first half before muscling his way for eight second half points along with 10 rebounds. He was 0-6 from three-point range and 4-13 from the field.
also pulling down 10 rebounds was junior post dan vandervieren (eden prairie, minn.), doing so in just 16 minutes of action. Heiman and vandervieren's rebounding helped concordia top the 40 mark for a fourth straight time to start the year as they dominated the glass 44-23 including a 17-2 mark on the offensive boards.
barz rounded out cu's individual lines with eight points, five rebounds and four assists in 19 minutes of clock.
the marauders had five in double-figures led by erdmann's 21 and they shot 54.2% from the floor and 85.7% at the line in 14 attempts. Concordia shot 47.8% from the field and only made one of their six free throws.
the golden bears will open their northern sun slate next weekend against upper iowa on friday night on a neutral floor at wisconsin-river falls at 8:00 p.m. Before hosting winona state at 3:00 at gangelhoff center on saturday.
