Feb. 18, 2012 - The season-high four-game winning streak of the Concordia Cougar men's basketball team ended at the hands of Edgewood College this afternoon. The Eagles scored the first 13 points of the game and never looked back in beating the Cougars 74-62 in today's Northern Athletics Conference Challenge Game in Madison, Wisconsin.
Today's game pitted the two second-place teams from the North (Edgewood) and South (CUC) Divisions and two of the hottest teams in the conference. But it was the Eagles that burst out to a big lead in the first 3:31 after tip-off. Edgewood made its first five shots from the field including a pair of threes by Kent Faurote and another three by Ben Wisniewski. Cole Reindl (Germantown, WI/H.S.) finally got the Cougars on the board with a three at the 16:21 mark.
Concordia found it difficult to chip away at the big lead as Edgewood shot 15-23 (65 percent) for the half. However, the Cougars shot 12-20 themselves and made some progress. Issa Avery's (Evanston, IL/St. Benedict) three late in the half brought the Cougars within seven, but the Eagles scored six of the final eight points of the half and went to the locker room at half leading 43-32.
Ben Wisniewski's jumper early in the second half gave Edgewood a 50-36 lead, but the Eagles would go the next eight minutes without a field goal. Concordia made some headway and closed within six points on a three-point play by Joe Pearson (Chicago, IL/St. Francis de Sales) at the 11:04 mark. However, Faurote's tip-in ended the field goal dry spell for the hosts, and they soon began to pull away. Edgewood was able to keep its lead in double digits over the final seven minutes of the game.
Al Kahlfeldt (New Berlin, WI/Eisenhower) led the Cougars with 12 points on four three-pointers. Avery was next for the Cougars with nine points and six rebounds.
Wisniewski led all scorers with 20 points, followed by Faurote with 15 and Justin Williams with 10. The Eagles shot 54 percent from the field on 25-46 but nailed 11 of 24 threes for a blistering 46 percent. The Cougars shot 55 percent overall (22-40) and 44 percent (7-16) from long range.
The Cougars (10-16) go into the NAC Tournament as the fourth seed and will host Lakeland College on Tuesday night at 7:00.
