st. Paul, minn. - the concordia university men's basketball team (7-7, 4-3 nsic) completed a big weekend sweep totalling 200 points as tonight they rolled up a 90-58 win over minnesota duluth (6-9, 3-5 nsic) at gangelhoff center in northern sun action. Concordia's back-to-back wins move them to a sixth-place tie in the league standings, just a half game out of fifth (winona state, 5-3) and a game out of fourth (u-mary, 5-2) as league play is intensifying. box score
the golden bears really never struggled in this game with just one tie and no lead changes and concordia leading by as many as 42 points with 13:20 to play in the game, a 67-25 advantage at it's peak.
for the weekend, concordia allowed only 38 points in the paint combined while scoring 102. Tonight, the margin was 54-16 in favor of cu, who also dominated the glass 44-31, outscored umd 16-2 on the fast break.
turnovers were also a positive for concordia, committing eight for the night and winning the turnover battle by causing 11. They had 19 assists as well, giving them a 50-17 assist-turnover ratio in the impressive two game stretch.
leading the squad's improved ball control offense was senior sammy ricks (st. Paul, minn.) who dished a career-high eight assists playing turnover free basketball in 23 minutes. He also had a pair of steals and five rebounds while knocking down his lone three-point attempt. In the two games, ricks had 13 assists without a turnover and produced six steals.
he distributed the ball evenly as well, with four players in double-figures and no one scoring more than senior mike cunningham (minneapolis, minn.) and sophomore brent barz (johnston, iowa) who each netted 14. Barz also had a team-high seven rebounds and two blocks while cunningham snared five boards.
joining them in double-figures was junior andrew kuderer (eden prairie, minn.) who scored 11 points as he buried three three-pointers for the second straight night, using just five attempts tonight while also adding three assists and a pair of steals.
off the bench, senior post thomas bassett (denison, iowa) had 10 points on 5-7 shooting and four offensive rebounds along with a block as he continues his improved play in the new year.
concordia used impressive first half defense to jump out to a 47-21 lead at the break, holding umd to 33.3% (9-27) field goal shooting while forcing eight turnovers. Concordia committed only one turnover of their own leading to a 12-0 scoring margin off of miscues. The golden bears also shot well in the first half, hitting 54.3% (19-35) from the floor and 55.6% (5-9) from three-point range. They allowed only six points in the paint in the first half.
in the second half, the game turned into more of a track meet as both teams were running and gunning. But concordia maintained their solid shooting with a 56.3% (18-32) mark while umd continued to struggle at 35.9% (14-39).
it was clear that the golden bears found something this weekend, as the squad seemed to gel as a unit more than at any point this season. It culminated with a handful of second half slams, two by junior post dan vandervieren (eden prairie, minn.) and an exclamation point from junior forward chris hamblin (eagan, minn.). Hamblin's late game jam came off a shot fake from behind the arc before driving to his right on the baseline and taking off from outside the lane as he elevated his long arms for the powerful finish.
vandervieren's second dunk was also impressive, a play where as soon as he took the pass from junior guard courtney tyler (eagan, minn.) and pulled down the rim. Vandervieren's slam put concordia ahead by their largest margin of 42 points.
tyler, meanwhile, finished with nine points and freshman guard isaiah thomas (fridley, minn.) scored eight connecting on two more three-pointers. Bassett, tyler and thomas led concodia's bench to a 40 point night and allowed head coach kelly boe to keep his starters fresh again, not using anyone for more than 23 minutes.
the bulldogs were led by ron white's double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds although he struggled shooting, hitting just 7-19 from the field and 2-4 at the line while committing three turnovers. Rhett mcdonald scored 15 off the bench with 4-8 three-point shooting and dylan rodriguez finished with 10 points despite missing his first seven field goal attempts as he finished 4-14 from the floor.
concordia is now 10-0 in boe's four years when scoring at least 90 points and 24-4 when topping 80. Their back-to-back home wins improve their season home record to 5-4 and they are 36-17 at gangelhoff under coach boe.
concordia returns to the road next weekend to face #7 minnesota state on friday and southwest minnesota state on saturday in what will be a challenging weekend away from gangelhoff, where they have played their last six games.
the golden bears are 2-0 on the road this year, both nsic games, and are 19-19 on the road under coach boe.
