Courtesy of GoCobbers.com, Release: February 6, 2010
Team |
1st Half |
2nd Half |
Final |
 |
27 |
33 |
60 |
 |
27 |
36 |
63 |
Gameday Menu:
Opponent's Website: St. John's Men's Basketball
MIAC Website: MIAC Men's Basketball
MOORHEAD, Minn. (2/6/10)-- After waiting 28 days in between wins during their last losing skid, the Cobbers needed only three days to pick up back-to-back victories and earn their 10th win of the year. Concordia used a tough defense and a stick-to-it offense and edged St. John's 63-60 in Moorhead on Saturday.
John Fraase posted his second consecutive double-double in leading CC to their second straight win. Concordia is now 10-12 overall and 6-11 in the MIAC. The Cobbers have still not been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs and will need to win their final three games to have any chance at all in order to make the conference tournament.
Fraase finished with 18 points and a game-high 13 rebounds - all on the defensive end - to record his 10th double-double of the season. It is the second straight season he has posted double-digit double-double totals. Freshman Ebo Nana-Kweson continues to be a tough match-up for opposing defense as he had career-highs in points and rebounds. Nana-Kweson finished with 15 points and six rebounds. Both Darrin Olmscheid and Karl Olson finished with 11 points giving four of the five Cobber starters double-digit scoring totals.
St. John's (13-8/10-6) was led by Todd Herman who had a game-high 20 points and made two of the team's three 3-point field goals on the day. Aaron Burtzel chipped in 16 hard-fought points and Aaron Barmore added 10. Burtzel also had a team-high nine rebounds and four assists.
Concordia threatened to blow out the Johnnies in the early stages of the first half. The Cobbers roared out to a 13-2 lead only to see SJU go on a 15-2 run and take a 17-15 lead with just under 8:00 to play in the first period. St. John's would then lead by as many as four points in the half until CC made one late surge and tied the game at 27-27 heading into the break.
The Cobbers only trailed at one point in the second half and that was when the Johnnies connected on the first field goal of the half. Concordia would hold the lead the rest of the way and even pushed the margin to eight points with 5:11 left in the game. SJU then chiseled it down to two points with under 1:00 to play and had a chance to tie, or take the lead in the game in the final :20 seconds of play. After Concordia missed a free throw on the front end of a 1-and-1, the Johnnies trailed 62-60 but CC's pressure defense forced a turnover and the Cobbers were able to ice the game with a Karl Olson free throw with :05 seconds to go on the clock.
Concordia's interior defense continually stopped St. John's from driving to the basket for easy field goals and kept MIAC MVP candidate Burtzel away from the basket for most of the game. The Cobbers also made it tough for the SJU perimeter players to get on track by constantly fighting through screens and not letting the Johnnie sharpshooters get an open look at the hoop. St. John's shot only 25.0% (3-for-12) from 3-point range and guard Andy Burns, who entered the game in the top 5 in the MIAC in 3-point percentage and 3-point field goals made was held to just one long-range basket in the game and finished the day 1-for-5 from behind the arc.
Concordia was able to get good looks around the basket after being forced to take the entire 35 seconds on the shot clock for many possessions. The Cobbers shot 47.2% (25-for-53) from the floor. CC was minimally better than St. John's from the outside. Concordia went 4-for-15 (26.7%) from 3-point range.
Virtually every other stat category was even for the game for the two teams. St. John's held a 34-33 edge in rebounding, both teams committed 11 turnovers, Concordia held a 11-6 margin in points off of turnovers and SJU was two points better at 32-30 in points in the paint.
The Cobbers will try and make it three straight wins when they play at Macalester on Wednesday, Feb. 10 at 7:45 p.m.
