Dec. 20, 2016 – The Concordia-Chicago men's basketball team came back from a 10-day layoff and put together one of their most complete efforts of the season this evening. Fighting off a brief second-half lull in which they lost the lead for the first time all night the Cougars roared back with a 36-20 run to reel in the Lakeland University Muskies in Sheboygan by a final score of 81-70.

Jarek Hotwagner scored the first points of the game, and the Cougars grabbed an early lead with Lakeland picking up four fouls in the first 2:07. However, CUC missed three of its first six free throws, and Eric Nygaard's jumper put the Muskies within 11-9. However, a three by Justin Saar and layups by Rodrigo Nava and Mitch Pelissier extended the lead to 18-10 as Lakeland called timeout at the 12:02 mark.

Another three by Saar and a layup by Kyle Hoffman gave the Cougars their biggest lead at 24-15, but the Muskies fought their way back to a 28-28 tie at the 4:50 lead. However, Nava put the visitors back in the lead with two free throws, and Hoffman canned a three for a five-point lead. James kept the Muskies in the game with a bucket and two free throws with three seconds left, but Nava found Pelissier on a length of the court inbounds, and Pelissier laid the ball in before the buzzer to make the halftime score CUC 38, Lakeland 35.

The Muskies came out for the second half with Joshuan McNeal picking up the offense. He scored the first four points of the half to give Lakeland its first lead, but Saar connected on his fourth three of the game to put CUC ahead once again. However, Lakeland continued to battle as McNeal added seven more points over the next few minutes, including a three-point play at the 14:54 mark to give the Muskies their biggest lead at 50-45.

Concordia-Chicago was not about to let this one get away, however. Nava scored inside, and Mike Walmer hit a three to tie the score. The Cougars later took the lead for good at 56-54 as Justin Mack scored inside. Moments later, Jamaal Thomas stole the ball and hit a streaking Pelissier for a layup. Lakeland's Pat McDonald drilled a three to make it a one-point game, but the Cougars kept up the fast-paced tempo and scored the next eight points for a 66-57 lead with 7:35 remaining.

Lakeland made one final charge, getting to within 70-64 on McDonald's three at the 5:18 mark. However, Mack and Hotwagner both scored inside after CUC worked some clock, and the Cougars out-executed the Muskies down the stretch as they finished off their first victory in conference play and second overall.

"Our guys did a great job of managing the game, especially over the last five or six minutes," said CUC head coach Randy Rogers. "We were able to run our four corners offense and attack with it, getting some good inside shots. We kept a large part of the game at our tempo, we made some great pinpoint passes and won the turnover battle in the second half. This was a very nice game to get, especially on the road."

Pelissier led CUC with 17 points, followed by Saar with 15 (4-7 on threes). Nava played a great game off the bench with 13 points, six assists, four blocks and four steals. Walmer scored 12 points (11 in the second half) and also led a strong defensive effort on LU's Pat McDonald, shutting down a big cog in Lakeland's offense.

The Muskies were led by Brandon James who scored a game-high 22 points but was held to just four in the second half. McNeal added 17 points and a game-high 13 rebounds.

Concordia-Chicago (2-6, 1-4 NACC) will break for Christmas before returning to the court on Saturday, Dec. 31 when they host the Milwaukee School of Engineering at 2 p.m.