The two teams' offenses started out the game fast and furious. Edgewood forwards Joe Klocek and Justin Williams
combined to score 13 of the host school's 15 points. Meanwhile,
Brandon Stinson (Schiller Park, IL/East Leyden) scored Concordia's first six points.
Joel Kosberg (Anthem, AZ/Valley Lutheran) found the range twice from three-point land as the Cougars and Eagles forged a 15-15 tie after six minutes.
Eagle sub Tal Diekvoss then changed the game as he canned the first two of his five threes on the night. Edgewood went on a run interrupted only by
Khirey Floyd's (Oak Park, IL/Oak Park-River Forest) three. Two free throws by Trevor Neale completed the 12-3 run giving the Eagles a 27-18 edge.
Baskets by
Marcus Elston (Chicago, IL/Benito Juarez) and Floyd brought Concordia back within five, but Edgewood came back with the next 11 points. Diekvoss made two more threes, and Brett Meinecke added a trey to up the Eagles' lead to 38-22. Edgewood finished the half with 7-16 shooting from downtown in rolling to a 42-28 lead after 20 minutes.
Trailing 47-33 early in the second half, the Cougars made their move. Elston's short jumper and Floyd's slam on the fast break pulled Concordia within ten. Then, following a steal, Kosberg was the recipient of a hard foul from behind as he went in for the layup. An intentional foul was ruled and, after Kosberg hit both free throws,
David Baez (Chicago, IL/George Washington) turned it into a four-point play on a layup. Suddenly, the Cougars were within 47-41 with 13:44 to play.
The Cougars weathered a brief Eagles' flurry and pulled within 53-49 at the 6:45 mark on Floyd's bucket. But the Eagles scored the next seven points on Meinecke's basket, Diekvoss' final three and two free throws by Williams. Floyd scored to make it a nine-point game, but that was as close as Concordia got over the last four minutes. Meinecke added a three down the stretch to give the hosts a final tally of nine threes for the game (43 percent) as they closed out the victory.
Diekvoss led the Eagles with 16 points, followed by Meinecke with 15 and Williams with 11. Edgewood shot 24-51 (47 percent) from the field and 12-15 (80 percent) from the line. The Eagles helped themselves by committing just nine turnovers over the 40 minutes.
Floyd led the Cougars with 20 points, followed by Stinson with 11. Elston scored nine points while pulling down a game-high 14 rebounds, 10 of them in the second half. Concordia shot 21-59 (36 percent) from the field, 4-17 (24 percent) from long range and 11-19 (58 percent) from the line. The Cougars controlled the boards with 39 to the Eagles' 30 but came up short in the turnover battle as they committed 11.
Concordia (1-11, 1-5 NAC) returns to action on Wednesday, Jan. 9 with a battle against crosstown rival Dominican University at the Igini Sports Forum.
