ABERDEEN, S.D. - Heading where they've never won in 15 prior meetings, Concordia University (11-14, 8-13 NSIC) was in control of their own destiny on Saturday night when they faced Northern State (13-12, 9-12) at Wachs Arena in front of over 5,000 spectators. But it was not a sweet sixteen for the Golden Bears at Wachs, as the Wolves shot the lights out in the second half on their way to an 86-59 win to essentially eliminate Concordia from NSIC Tournament contention. Concordia is now 0-16 all-time when playing at Northern State, who now control their own destiny to hold off Wayne State for the final tournament spot. BOX SCORE
The Golden Bears can still end up in an eighth-place tie, either with Northern State or in a 3-way tie with Northern State and Wayne State. But getting swept by each team this season unofficially eliminates them via tiebreaking criteria.
Concordia was led in the loss by senior guards Peter and Kenny Olafeso (St. Paul, Minn.). Peter scored 20 points while Kenny added 14. Terez Van Pelt (Osseo, Minn.) added 10 points.
The two teams were tied entering this evening's play at Wachs Arena, with Northern State holding a 1-0 lead on the season series with a win at Gangelhoff Center in December. In that game, the Wolves abused Concordia inside as senior post Brent Barz (Johnston, Iowa) was out of the lineup with an injury.
In that game, Northern State posts Collin Pryor and Dustin Tetzlaff each had double-doubles with 16-10 and 12-11, respectively. The Wolves out-rebounded Concordia 49-30, had a 23-2 margin in second chance scoring and 40-26 in the paint.
Tonight, Concordia was playing with a very limited Barz. He didn't start for the second straight contest and played only four non-impactful minutes in the first half.
Yet, Concordia held Pryor without a field goal for the first 35 minutes of play and Tetzlaff made just one field goal all night. The two combined for only 16 points and 15 rebounds with a bulk of the rebounds coming down the stretch as Concordia attempted numerous late three-pointers.
But it wasn't the same poison that doomed Concordia this time around. Geoffrey Firmin poured in a career-high 29 points, nearly doubling his previous high of 15. He also dished out six assists, made 10-14 from the floor and 3-4 from three. Alex Thomas added 17 points all in the second half by draining five three-pointers and the Wolves as a team went 22-24 (91.7%) at the foul line led by Tetzlaff's 8-8 free throw shooting on the night.
Northern State scored 55 points in the second half, shooting 60.0% (15-25) from the floor with nine of their 15 made field goals coming from long range as they shot 75.0% from behind the arc in the second half. They also made 16 of 17 at the stripe in the second half to help seal the win.
Prior to Northern State catching fire, it was a tightly played game for much of the night. Neither team led by double-digits until there 9-minutes left to play when the Wolves finally went up by 12.
Concordia would only get the lead inside double-digits one more time after that, though, as the Wolves stepped on the gas down the stretch.
In the first half, Concordia held Northern State to 37.5% shooting and just one of six from three-point range. Despite 33.3% shooting of their own, the Golden Bears held in the game because of first half three-point shooting as they made four and reached the foul line 11 times (8-11), holding a slight margin at the stripe as NSU was 6-7.
That all amounted to a 31-28 Northern State halftime lead. While three-point shooting helped keep Concordia in the game in the first half, it ultimately buried them. Concodia only made two out of 15 (13.3%) from long distance while watching the Wolves scorch the home nets.
Concordia concludes the regular season next Saturday at league-leading St. Cloud State at 4:00 p.m. at Halenbeck Hall.
