BISMARCK, N.D. - Fifth year senior leader
Cole Olstad had a remarkable finish to a contest in which he had a slow start. Olstad scored six points with two rebounds and an assist in the final three minutes to propel Concordia-St. Paul (9-15, 6-12 NSIC) to a 76-72 road win at the University of Mary 14-10, 9-9 NSIC) on Saturday night at McDowell Activity Center.
Concordia remains on the road for the final time of the regular season next weekend, travelling to Upper Iowa on Friday night and Winona State on Saturday.
Olstad was charged with three fouls in just six minutes of play in a scoreless first half and didn't re-enter the contest until there was 14:29 to play in the game. In the last 14:29 of play, Olstad scored 12 points with four assists (no turnovers), three rebounds and a block on 4-6 shooting and 2-2 three-point shooting.
He converted his only two free throw attempts of the game with four seconds to play in a clutch spot to turn a two point lead into a two possession game, essentially putting the game away. He's just a point shy of reaching 1,400 for his career and is now third in team history with 169 steals.
The Golden Bears entered the game having lost eight in a row on the road including all eight conference road games. Last night, the team struggled to get going from the floor in a spacious and mostly empty 10,000 seat dome before travelling to the intimate McDowell Activity Center tonight.
The Marauders' home arena had 1,102 fans in a gym where the noise and atmosphere is considerably more unfavorable to guests due to its size, especially in comparison to travel partner Minot State.
The game's activity also played to a more intense environment as the contest featured 14 ties and 16 lead changes with neither team able to lead by more than Concordia's seven point first half advantage (12-5, 14:23) while U-Mary's largest lead was just four (27-23, 6:28).
Late in the second half, U-Mary claimed a two point lead, 68-66 with under four minutes to play. After a scoreless minute, Olstad found redshirt freshman
Matt Ambriz for a three-pointer and a 69-68 lead.
After the team forced a turnover on defense, Olstad drove for a bucket with 2:15 to play. A missed Marauder free throw on the next possession set-up another layup by Olstad on a feed from
Shea Mandli for a 5-point lead (73-68) with 1:40 to go.
In the closing minute, Olstad gathered a defensive rebound after U-Mary missed a game-tying three-pointer with 22 seconds before Ambriz made one of two at the line to make it a 4-point lead (74-70).
The Marauders drove for a layup with five seconds to go, hoping the Golden Bears would misfire at the foul line where Olstad made a pair to ice the game.
Mandli scored 17 points with seven rebounds and four assists (one turnover) on the night, shooting 7-14 from the field. Ambriz scored 12 points as he drilled three three-pointers in his fourth start in a row, clocking 31 minutes in the win.
With Olstad in foul trouble, junior
Diallo Powell came through in 37 minutes off the bench as he poured in 17 points with six assists, shooting 5-6 from the field while knocking down 3-4 from the arc with five rebounds.
The Golden Bears had five in double-figures in the game as
Bryndan Matthews also scored 13 points with six rebounds.
On the evening, Concordia shot nearly as well from the arc at 50.0 percent (10-20) as it did from the field at 50.9 percent (28-55) in a big shooting night. Five different players buried three's for the visitors while the squad defended the Marauders from getting hot on their home nets. U-Mary shot just 29.4 percent (5-17) from three and 37.3 percent (28-75) from the floor.
The Marauders did offset a tough shooting night by collecting 19 offensive rebounds compared to seven for Concordia which equated to a 21-9 edge in second chance scoring and 40-24 in the paint.
U-Mary was led by Devan Douglas with 21 points and seven rebounds while Isaac Lindquist had 10 points and 12 rebounds.
