Jan. 22, 2011 - Playing their third road game in five days, the first two having been decided by two points, the Concordia Cougars showed that they had enough in the tank to pull out a close contest this afternoon against Marian University. Sizzling second-half shooting coupled with solid defense led the Cougars past the Sabres by a score of 84-76.
The Sabres celebrated an early Senior Day at Sadoff Gymnasium, and one of their seniors, 6'5" Zach Damrow had the early hot hand. Damrow hit a pair of threes and laid in a missed Sabres' shot as the hosts grabbed a 13-2 lead after four minutes.
Concordia looked for a spark off the bench, and they got it in Charles Gordon (Chicago, IL/Lane Tech). The sophomore's steal led to a three-point play. Moments later, Justin Hineman's (Hartland, WI/Arrowhead) steal led to a three by Al Kahlfeldt (New Berlin, WI/Eisenhower). Moments later, Kahlfeldt drilled a second one from the top of the key. Gordon followed with a pair of free throws, and the Cougars were within 22-20.
The Cougars stayed in the chase as Larrell Gary (Chicago, IL/Whitney Young) heated up. The senior hit a couple of medium-range jumpers and nailed a three. However, Marian maintained the lead behind the shooting of Jeff Harris. The 6'2" guard was 5-7 from three-point range in the half.
Concordia finally passed the hosts at 31-30 with 3:12 left on Jeff Weberg's (Rockford, IL/Lutheran) offensive rebound and two free throws. The lead see-sawed back and forth over the final minutes of the half. However, Harris' fifth three of the game and two free throws by James Bartelt gave Marian the 40-36 edge after 20 minutes.
Marian shot 9-14 from behind the three-point arc and 13-24 overall for the half. Concordia shot just 32 percent on 12 of 37 but stayed close with 9-12 free throw shooting. The Cougars also owned a huge plus-eight differential in turnovers. committing just three to Marian's 11.
Concordia took advantage of three missed Marian free throws in the opening minutes of the second half and took a 42-41 lead on Jacob O'Hara's (Sheffield Village, OH/Lutheran West) two free throws. Gary followed with a three from the right wing. Marian scored to cut Concordia's lead to two, but O'Hara responded with threes from the left and right wings to give the Cougars their biggest lead at 51-43.
The Cougars maintained their lead with increasingly aggressive drives to the basket. Weberg converted a three-point play, and Gordon and Young also got to the line with strong moves.
Marian made a run, trimming an 11-point deficit to four via a couple of turnovers, but Gary hit a three under pressure at the 4:58 mark to stem the tide. Kahlfeldt followed with a three after a Marian miss, and the Cougars had their double-digit lead back with four minutes remaining. Solid free-throw shooting down the stretch enabled the Cougars to protect their cushion and run out the clock on their second win of the week.
Concordia hit five of six threes for the half and 13 of 19 shots overall for a red-hot .684 percentage. The aggressive play also led to 23 trips to the foul line of which Concordia knocked down 17. For the game, Concordia was 26 of 35 from the stripe for 74 percent.
Gary topped CUC scorers with 17 points on 7-10 shooting (3-3 from downtown). Weberg added 12 points, and Young and O'Hara scored 11 each.
For Marian, Harris finished with 24 points but was held without a three in the second half. Donnahugh Brown scored 13 and Damrow 11.
Concordia (8-7, 3-6 NAC ) will host Dominican on Wednesday night at 7:00 before traveling to Ann Arbor for next weekend's CIT tournament.
