Jan. 7, 2015 - The Concordia-Chicago Cougars and the Concordia Wisconsin Falcons squared off this evening at the John Buuck Field House in Mequon, WI for the first of two (and possibly three) meetings in the month of January. The Cougars received a standout performance from guard Kylan Anderson (Chicago, IL/home schooled) who burned the nets for 35 points, but the Falcons had the scoring balance and capitalized on Cougars' miscues as this game went to CUW by a final score of 90-75. Anderson shot 12-19 from the field including a sizzling 6-8 from beyond the arc and added 5-7 from the charity stripe. His output was the highest for a CUC player since February 2009 when Ryan Young hit for 35 against Wisconsin Lutheran College.
The Cougars' 6'0" guard had the hot hand out of the gates as he drained a couple of threes and hit two free throws to give CUC a 12-6 lead. Brandon Stinson (Schiller Park, IL/East Leyden) added to the lead with a short banker, and Tino Vazquez (Chicago, IL/Proviso East) beat the Falcons downcourt after a basket to score on a layup and stretch the Cougars' lead to 16-8. The Falcons fought back into the game by going inside for several baskets, but they had no answer for Anderson who continued to burn the birds from the inside and outside, and his three with just under eight minutes left gave him 18 points and the Cougars a 30-24 lead.
The Cougars stretched their lead to seven moments later on a three by Jacob Oakley (Sun Prairie, WI/H.S.), but the Falcons rallied late in the half behind Eric Kittel who scored seven points including a three to take a six-point lead. Anderson closed the scoring for the half as he hit a three for his 23rd point to make the halftime score Falcons 43, Cougars 40. Concordia Wisconsin opened the second half with a 7-2 run before Anderson took off again. A three-point shot was followed by a steal and fastbreak layup within the span of 15 seconds, and CUC was back to within three points. But the Falcons embarked on a 12-0 run including a three by Kittel.
Down 15, the Cougars came back with Kostas Doxakis (Thessaloniki, Greece) scoring 10 second-half points. His layup. His three at the 3:54 mark put the Cougars within 80-72, but the Falcons shut the door with a game-ending 10-3 run. Both teams shot over 50 percent from the field in the first half, but the Cougars fell to 42 percent in the second half while the Falcons shot 56 percent (18-32) over the final 20 minutes. Part of that was attributable to CUW scoring 17 points off of CUC turnovers (29 for the game). The Cougars committed 18 turnovers while the Falcons were guilty of 13.
Concordia-Chicago will host Edgewood College on Saturday afternoon at 4:15.
