Grand Night for Young as Cougars Score Sixth Straight Victory

Feb. 5, 2011 - The Concordia Cougars earned an important road win this evening, taking down the Maranatha Baptist Bible College by a score of 70-57. Along with notching their sixth straight win, the Cougars celebrated point guard Deontay Young (Chicago, IL/Lincoln Park) becoming the 20th player in the program's history (and second this season) to reach the 1,000-point level for his career.

The two teams traded baskets over the first 10 minutes before a jumper by Larrell Gary (Chicago, IL/Whitney Young) and a steal and layup by Young put Concordia up 16-13. The Crusaders tied the score briefly, but baskets by Mike Lichtenheld (Woodstock, IL/H.S.) and Young, and two free throws by Young gave the Cougars a 22-16 edge.

Later in the half, Young reached his milestone following a steal by Gary. He controlled the ball at the top of the key before finding Young all alone under the basket for an easy layup. Young's 1,001st point came at the 5:03 mark of the half and made the score Cougars 25, Crusaders 20. Concordia held firm through the end of the half and went to the break leading 33-25.

Concordia shot 13-28 in the first half for 46 percent, but their strength on the boards was the big reason for their lead. The Cougars pulled down 18 caroms to the Crusaders' eight with Tony Kay (Walnut, IL/Bureau Valley) leading the way with four.

The lead stretched to 11 in the second half and, while Maranatha was able to stay in the hunt, Concordia's interior defense did not allow the hosts any easy baskets, and Maranatha had no success from the outside in shooting 2-12.

Maranatha rallied to trim Concordia's lead to seven points with 4:26 remaining. However, Al Kahlfeldt (New Berlin, WI/Eisenhower) buried a three from the top of the key to slow the Crusaders' momentum. Solid free throw shooting took care of the rest as the Cougars connected on 9-12 over the final minutes.

Fittingly, Young led the Cougars on the night with 19 points (5-10 FG, 9-11 FT). Jeff Weberg (Rockford, IL/Lutheran) added 17 points on 7-12 shooting, and Justin Hineman (Hartland, WI/Arrowhead) scored 12 points to go with seven rebounds. However, the Cougars' leading rebounder for the game was the 6'8" senior Kay who finished with a career-high nine, four on the offensive end.

With the win, the Cougars even their Northern Athletics Conference record at 6-6 while improving to 13-7 overall. They also pull to witin one-half game of Aurora University for third place in the NAC South Division; the Cougars will host Aurora on Wednesday night at 7:00.

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Players Mentioned

#25 Larrell Gary: G; 6' 2"; Senior

#33 Justin Hineman: F; 6' 4"; Junior

#5 Al Kahlfeldt: G; 6' 2"; Sophomore

#50 Tony Kay: C; 6' 8"; Senior

#12 Mike Lichtenheld: G; 6' 0"; Senior

#20 Deontay Young: G; 5' 10"; Senior

Players Mentioned

#25 Larrell Gary
: 6' 2"; Senior
: G

#33 Justin Hineman
: 6' 4"; Junior
: F

#5 Al Kahlfeldt
: 6' 2"; Sophomore
: G

#50 Tony Kay
: 6' 8"; Senior
: C

#12 Mike Lichtenheld
: 6' 0"; Senior
: G

#20 Deontay Young
: 5' 10"; Senior
: G