Dec. 31, 2014 - Hours before the general population embarked upon its New Year's Eve festivities, the Concordia University Chicago men's basketball team found themselves with another reason to celebrate. Coming from 23 points down in their Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference matinee at Rockford University, the Cougars played a tenacious and relentless second half replete with plenty of offensive firepower to shock the Regents in the final seconds by a score of 97-94.
"We needed this one," said CUC head coach Tyler Jones. "We've been struggling and have had a long layoff with a bad taste in our mouths. We wanted to see some grit, to get in a battle and fight our way out of it, and that's what we did today."
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Both offenses came out blazing as CUC hit six of its first nine shots and Rockford seven of its first ten. But the Cougars' shooting cooled off while the Regents remained on a tear. Rockford's two forwards, 6'8" Zach Wallace and 6'5" Kenny Parks, led the charge as they combined for 8-9 shooting. Leading 14-12, the Regents went off on a 23-2 run over an eight-minute span, and the hosts were up 37-14 with 8:28 remaining in the half.
The Cougars were able to claw back to a more reasonable margin over the final minutes. Kostas Doxakis (Thessaloniki, Greece) put the Cougars back on track with a two and a three from trhe corner. Jacob Oakley (Sun Prairie, WI/H.S.) followed with a three, and Brandon Stinson (Schiller Park, IL/East Leyden) did some gritty inside work to add some points. Mike Walmer (Orlando, FL/Orlando Christian) hit a couple of short baseline jumpers for CUC's final four points of the half, and the Cougars had chopped nine points off the earlier 23-point deficit, trailing 57-43 after 20 minutes. The second half began promisingly for the Cougars with a quick 8-3 burst. Walmer scored all eight of CUC's points in the run as the Cougars worked nicely in the transitions. Rockford burned a timeout, but Concordia kept coming. This time, it was Tino Vazquez (Chicago, IL/Proviso East) leading the way as he scored four points on the offensive end and came up with a big block and a couple of rebounds on the defensive end. Shortly after, Walmer nailed a three from the right corner for his 13th point of the half, and the Cougars were within one at 65-64. Rockford was able to retain the lead a while longer as they got a three-point play from Wallace and a couple of scores from Ross Arteaga. The Regents bumped the lead back up to seven at 75-68, but the Cougars would not go away. Doxakis converted three free throws after being fouled and came back later with a conventional three. Walmer remained hot, following Doxakis' three with one of his own from the right wing and, amazingly, the Cougars had their first lead since the early minutes of the game at 82-80.
Concordia hit a brief speed bump as Rockford came back to score the next seven points. However, the Cougars regrouped and made their final charge in the last two minutes. Trailing 92-89, it was sophomore Kyle Hoffman (Manitowoc, WI/Lincoln) that came up with arguably the biggest shot of the game to that point. Hoffman got a kickout from DeAires Blackwell (Chicago, IL/St. Rita) on the left wing and let fly with a three that rippled the net and brought the Cougars even with the Regents at 92 apiece. The Regents missed out on a chance to reclaim the lead as Stinson rebounded a miss with one minute left. The ball ventually found its way to Walmer, and he drive the lane for the layup that gave CUC a two-point lead with 45.3 seconds remaining. The basket gave Walmer a new career-high of 34 points (26 in the second half), easily surpassing his previous standard of 25 against Fontbonne University in December 2013.
Parks pulled Rockford back into a tie with 24 ticks left, leaving CUC to draw up a play for the last shot. Once again, Walmer got the ball and found a lane to the basket from the right side. However, as he encountered heavy traffic underneath, he found Kylan Anderson(Chicago, IL/home schooled) on the left wing wide open. Anderson's minutes were limited today due to foul trouble, but the junior was ready for this situation, launching a three that found nothing but net with 5.0 seconds left for the lead. Rockford had a timeout left but instead put the ball in play quickly. They got the ball into the frontcourt but could get only an off-balance three that was off target, the ball caroming into no-man's land as the final horn sounded. The final scoring for CUC showed Stinson and Doxakis joining Walmer in double figures with 12 and 11 points respectively. Anderson, Blackwell and Hoffman all chipped in with nine points each. Blackwell also pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds as the Cougars finished with a 42-30 advantage on the boards.
Rockford (3-9, 2-5 NACC) was led by Wallace's 27 points (10-14 from the field). Parks and John O'Bryan added 19 each, and Arteaga scored 14.
The Cougars will begin the 2015 portion of the schedule this Saturday, January 3 as they welcome the Milwaukee School of Engineering to Geiseman Gymnasium. Tipoff is scheduled for 30 minutes after the women's game (approximately 4:15).
