Jan. 25, 2014 - Count on a Concordia Invitational Tournament game to produce many exciting basketball moments with the occasional miracle thrown in for good measure. Today's game between the Concordia-Chicago Cougars and the Concordia Ann Arbor Cardinals certainly produced an exciting finish but, unfortunately for the Cougars, the miracle came up a little bit short. The Cardinals held off a tremendous comeback by the Cougars to win the men's consolation game by an 80-74 score.
Almost 20 years ago to the day, Concordia-Chicago alum David Bailey '94 popped in 10 three-pointers in a Concordia Invitational Tournament game in St. Paul, Minnesota. Today, it was CUC junior Jacob Oakley (Sun Prairie, WI/H.S.) that thrilled the crowd in the Buuck Field House on the Concordia-Wisconsin campus. Oakley hit six three-point baskets in the game - four of them coming in a span of 2:32 late in the game - as the Cougars fought back from a 21-point deficit with 4:11 remaining and got within five points before the Cardinals finally wrapped up the victory. For the first 36 minutes, the Cougars had struggled mightily to keep up with their NAIA opponents from Michigan. John Schaeffer provided some early three-point magic as he hit four bombs and scored 14 points in the opening 7:20 to help his team out to a 23-9 lead.
The Cougars looked to put a sustained rally together, with Nat Pearson (Palatine, IL/H.S.) and Mike Walmer (Orlando, FL/Orlando Christian) chipping in with a couple of scores each. But the Cougars were unable to slow down the Cardinals effectively, and Josh Fugate provided a couple of scores in the final minutes of the half to put CUAA back up by 17 at the break, 43-26.
Prospects of any sort of comeback looked bleak as the Cougars went nearly five minutes into the second half before they scored their first field goal. That basket came from Brandon Stinson (Schiller Park, IL/East Leyden) who would go on to score 17 of his 19 points in the second half. However, the Cardinals had their lead up to 21 at that points, and they were able to match the Cougars basket for basket - until the final minutes. "Just minutes before we made the run, I told our team that lately we've been hit with a barrage of threes by so many different teams. Why not us?" said head coach Tyler Jones. "Let's see if we can do it too."
With CUC trailing 67-46, Oakley began the furious charge with a three at the 4:11 mark. Two CUAA turnovers followed, and the Cougars cashed in by way of another Oakley three and two free throws by Kostas Doxakis (Thessaloniki, Greece) to make it a 67-54 game. The Cougars kept coming as Oakley hit two more rainbows, his fifth and sixth of the game, around a layup by the Cardinals' Makenzi Kurvits-Statum. "It was incredible to see Jake just so much in the moment and see the team feed off of him," said Jones.
Ann Arbor answered with two free throws, but Stinson took advantage of CUAA's defensive coverage and drove hard to the basket. Stinson was fouled as he made the layup, and he converted the ensuing free throw. All of a sudden, the Cougars were within eight points at 71-63 with 1:18 remaining.
From that point, the Cougars fouled quickly in order to get the ball back. Their strategy paid off as the Cardinals missed eight of their next 12 free shots. Stinson would score twice to pull CUC as close as they had been since the game's first minutes, 76-71 with 38 seconds left.
Sadly, the Cougars missed their next two shots from the field, and the Cardinals would salt away the victory with four more free throws. A Pearson three-pointer at the buzzer from halfcourt would account for the final margin of six points.
Oakley notched his career-high of 20 points (6-12 on threes), beating his previous highs of 11 points (Nebraska Wesleyan University in November 2012) and three triples (Aurora University in December 2012). Stinson finished with 19 points and seven rebounds. Pearson and Doxakis finished in double figures with 11 and 10 points respectively.
For Ann Arbor, Schaeffer led the way with 17 points while Fugate and Jesse Schienke had 14 each. The Cardinals shot just over 50 percent from the field but made good on 29 of 42 free throws.
The Cougars will return home to host Benedictine University on Tuesday night at 7:00
