st. Paul, minn. - senior guard mike cunningham (minneapolis, minn.) couldn't be stopped on saturday night as he poured in 20 points to lead concordia university to a slim 63-61 win over wayne state (neb.) in a battle of two teams locked in a three-way tie for sixth place at gangelhoff center. The golden bear victory, combined with an upper iowa loss to winona state, moves them to sole possession of sixth with a 7-6 mark in league play while improving to 10-10 overall. The visiting wildcats entered the contest with an identical record, but leave with a 9-11 overall and 6-7 league mark. box score
cunningham's performance was more than just the scoring, though, as he dished out seven assists with no turnovers, had five rebounds and five steals. He shot 7-12 from the floor, knocked down his only three-point attempt and all five of his free throws. For the weekend, cunningham had 13 assists with only one turnover.
clearly there was not a lot of separation between the two squads as their overall records indicated coming in. And, with a two-point margin for the final score, the golden bears proved they deserve their slim one game lead in the league's standings. One big difference between the two squads came last night when concordia picked up their first win against a team ranked higher in the nsic standings while wayne state has yet to pull off the signature win.
the result of these factors is a big weekend for the golden bears, who entered the nsic doubleheader weekend in eighth place and just one game ahead of a five way tie for ninth. A slip-up could have been devastating.
concordia head coach kelly boe had plans for the contrary, though, sensing a chance to make up some ground in the clutter of the nsic race. In the process, he picked up his 60th career win, improving to 60-45 in his fourth season.
he proved his team can win in a variety of ways. Last night's recap noted some key records for concordia on the season in certain situations. Tonight, there is a new first as the golden bears won for the first time while scoring under 75 points.
the defense held strong when it mattered the most, smothering a wildcat squad in the second half to 0-6 three-point shooting after allowing them to knock down six in the opening stanza at a 46.2% rate.
they also kept wsc and their physical posts out of the lane, limiting them to just two free throw attempts (both misses) in the first half with only five (all makes) in the second half.
and although the wildcat posts boxed concordia out well enough to hold them under 30 rebounds for the first time all season and out-rebounded cu 29-24, concordia still muscled their way into the lane offensively for a 36-24 scoring advantage in the paint and held the second chance scoring in check, being outscored by just three, 13-10 by wsc.
the game was even closer than some of these superlatives might indicate with six ties and 14 lead changes throughout with neither team leading by more than six in the game.
concordia started to gain some separation late when senior post thomas bassett (denison, iowa) found senior sammy ricks (st. Paul, minn.) in the lane with ricks converting the jumper over wsc's 6-7 senior post brett spiker with just over three and a half minutes to play. Bassett had four assists off the bench while ricks finished with four points, but grabbed five rebounds and had a pair of blocked shots despite being the shortest player on the floor.
the ricks bucket put cu ahead by six - their largest lead; 58-52 during a 9-0 run and wayne state would never lead again.
but the six point lead was temporary, as a chain of events unraveled on the golden bears allowing wayne to capitalize.
during a loose ball on the wayne state end of the court, spiker lost control of the ball to the golden bears. But during the commotion, bassett was whistled for a technical foul with navy and white jerseys all muddled up in the lane.
the result gave wayne a pair of technical free throws that were converted by brad starken. Starken finished with 11 points but five turnovers, while spiker had 12 points, 13 rebounds (five offensive) and three turnovers.
on cu's possession, the wildcat press forced a turnover on an errant pass from ricks to cunningham with jason jensen taking it away near the press table at center court. Jensen found teammate elijah miller for a layup, and after being fouled by ricks he converted the three-point play to take the score down to a one point cu lead, 58-57, with just under two minutes to play. Jensen scored a game-high 22 points.
the five point swing came in 13 seconds of elapsed game time and swiped the momentum back to wayne state.
after a golden bear timeout, boe came out ready to attack wayne state's passive-aggressive 1-3-1 zone defense.
with sharp ball movement and quick cutting, concordia used a sequence of passes as bassett found senior craig heiman (marshall, wis.) for an open layup to bring the lead back to three. Heiman finished the night with 12 points on 5-6 shooting.
just 13 seconds later, wayne state responded with a spiker bucket on a pass from starken, bringing the score back to 61-59 with just under a minute and a half left.
a defensive stop by the wildcats gave them the ball back with the chance to tie, and a cunningham foul put spiker on the line and he converted both attempts to tie the score at 61 with 54 seconds to play.
offensively, concordia used 20 seconds on their ensuing possession as junior andrew kuderer (eden prairie, minn.) found bassett for a layup and a two point lead with 34 ticks to play. Kuderer had another nice night, scoring 11 points on 5-9 shooting with three assists; also proving his game is more than just three-point shooting as he made just one of his four three's but converted four of his five two's and driving it right to the heart of wayne's physical posts.
that's when concordia clamped down defensively, forcing a well defended starken three-pointer with 14 seconds to play and since wsc only had committed four team fouls prior to that point, cu for the second straight night successfully played keep away after kuderer pulled down the rebound.
heiman was finally put on the free throw line with three seconds to play and even though he missed the front end of a 1-and-1, concordia's defense forced an off balanced 25 foot three-pointer by miller at the buzzer with a hand in his face. The three never had a chance, hitting the top of the backboard as the red light popped on around the glass.
the golden bears shot well throughout, hitting above 50% from the floor in each half, finishing 54.3% (25-46). They also knocked down 41.7% (5-12) from three-point range behind freshman isaiah thomas' (fridley, minn.) perfect 3-3 from downtown in the second half. Thomas scored nine in 11 minutes and is shooting a red-hot 75.0% (21-28) from three-point range in concordia's 10 wins this season.
concordia held wayne state to 44.6% (25-56) field goal shooting and the wildcats only had nine assists on their 25 made buckets while concordia assisted on 19 of their 25 makes. Concordia also blocked five shots and scored 24 points off of the 14 turnovers they created while wayne only scored 18 points on the 13 cu turnovers.
after the brief home weekend, concordia returns to the road for the third time in four weeks next weekend when they play at bemidji state and minnesota duluth on february 5-6.
with seven games to play, concordia has four on the road - bsu umd next weekend; and at st. Cloud state and upper iowa on feb. 24 and 27 to close out the regular season. Sandwiched in the middle are three home games: current nsic-leader #5 minnesota state, defending nsic champion southwest minnesota state on feb. 12-13 and msu moorhead on feb. 20.
notes:
mike cunningham's 10 rebounds over the weekend give him 403 for his career, ninth in school history. His 13 assists put him in second all-time with 362, moving ahead of joey peel (352, 2002-07). He is just 33 points shy of the 1,000 mark, seeking to become the 15th player in school history to reach the club.
