st. Paul, minn. - senior guard mike cunningham (minneapolis, minn.) did his best to help his squad come back from a 19 point second half deficit. He scored 20 of his career-high 27 points in the second half alone but it ended up being too little, too late for concordia university (5-5) in a 73-59 loss to regis university (5-4) on saturday night at gangelhoff center. box score
cunningham scored 20 of his team's 30 points in the second half, 11 of those coming in the final two minutes of play and all 20 were scored in the final 13 minutes. He did it on 5-10 shooting from the field, knocked down one three-pointer and converted nine of 11 at the foul line. For the night, he shot 8-18 from the field and 10-12 at the line, had three rebounds (two offensive with one tip-in) and had a pair of blocked shots.
his previous career-high was 26 points against minnesota duluth on february 7, 2009 and this is his fifth game scoring 20 or more points.
also turning in a solid performance was sophomore post brent barz (johnston, iowa) who was a point shy of a double-double, grabbing a team-high 11 rebounds and also adding three blocked shots and three assists. He shot 4-5 from the floor but only 1-3 at the foul line.
aside from barz, rebounding was a problem tonight for concordia, as the team collected only 31 rebounds, meaning anyone not named barz totalled just 20. Regis, meanwhile, hit the glass hard for 40 team rebounds including 15 on the offensive end. Chris johansen picked up eight offensive rebounds, 11 for the game and did get his double-double with 10 points.
defensively, concordia did not have an answer for matt rosinski, the rangers' leading scorer averaging nearly 20 per night coming into the weekend. He didn't disappoint tonight, either, with 26 points hitting 8-16 from the floor and 4-7 from long range. He also had four steals, assists and rebounds.
aside from rosinski, three others scored in double-figures as jordan martinez-doublin had 16 and matt busch added 11 off the bench while concordia only had cunningham's 27 and nine from barz with no one else scoring more than four points.
that pretty much summed up concorida's frustration, as their leading scorer and third leading scorer, seniors craig heiman (marshall, wis.) and sammy ricks (st. Paul, minn.) were bottled up to a combined 3-18 shooting night and 0-4 three-point shooting. Both players worked hard as well, seeing numerous looks fall off the rim on jumpers and tough shots in the lane. The result was neither getting to the foul line despite their aggressive play.
the four points produced by heiman are his lowest of the season and just the second time he failed to reach double-figures in 2009-10. In his distinguished career in the navy and gold, this was his lowest scoring contest to date in 95 games played.
concordia didn't give up without a fight, however. The squad's continued fight kept the coaching staff active down the stretch, as head coach kelly boe continued his offensive/defensive substitution, working junior chris hamblin (eagan, minn.) into the game in heiman's spot while bringing heiman back out on offense to catch a three-point spark down the stretch.
while heiman didn't get any good looks from the tough defensive play on the perimeter provided by the rangers, cunningham was able to continue his scoring tangent.
and cu did trim a 19 point margin down to 13 but with just 46 seconds remaining, time ran out on the late comeback attempt.
concordia also piled up eight team blocks, led by barz with three and cunningham with two while junior post dan vandervieren (eden prairie, minn.) also added a pair off the bench.
the golden bears will be back in action in non-conference play on tuesday, december 22 against the university of st. Thomas at gangelhoff center, the arena both teams are calling home for the 2009-10 campaign with the tommies completing construction of a new facility.
