Bulldog men’s basketball finishes regular season with 89-59 defeat of Tigers at home

Senior forward Tristan Smith (22) dodges a member of the opposing team to take a shot at the basket (photo from previous game).

Photo credit: Maddy Peters

By Cohen Carpenter

In Concordia’s last home regular season game of the season, the Bulldogs put on a show for Seward, dismantling the Tigers 89-59 on senior day Wednesday night.

Much like the women’s game before it, the final score is deceptive in this instance, as this was a tightly contested matchup for the first half of play. As a matter of fact, while Doane never took the lead outright, a 7-0 Tiger run was more than alarming in the first half as head coach Ben Limback’s squad weren’t able to bury their opponent early on. By halftime, Concordia was only up 38 to 34 on a Doane team that was 9-18 entering play Wednesday night.

“Well, they made some shots in the first half,” said Limback. “There were a couple bank shots and some shots that we wanted them to take but we weren’t very sharp offensively with the basketball. We turned it over, I think, nine times in the first half. A lot of credit to them. They played hard defensively and really sped us up. I thought we got a little out of rhythm in the first half.”

While the mere four-point lead wasn’t the end of the world, it certainly felt closer than it should have been as senior Noah Schutte, the team’s second leading scorer and second leading rebounder, was a late scratch, having injured himself in pregame warmups.

Schutte’s absence led to a naturally heavier workload for the starters and first couple of guys off the bench, with six Bulldogs seeing 20 or more minutes on the court and four of those six boasting 10 or more points.

“A lot of the guys contributed,” said Limback. “I think four guys were in double figures. Even the bench guys – I am so proud of these seniors, guys that have played four years in the program. Brayson [Mueller] had a nice pass to Tony [Tubrick] there at the end – I love the effort. I love that. This is a fun group of seniors and I’m thankful they got to be on their homecourt to end the season here.”

Leading the way for Concordia was senior Tristan Smith who didn’t miss a step despite losing his partner in crime. Smith led the team 19 points and nine rebounds on 9-13 shooting from the field. Production which mainly came in the opening minutes of the second half, when Concordia began to build its lead.

“In the second half we came out great,” said Limback. “Tristan inside, started scoring. I thought Zac [Kulus] and Brad [Bennett] got loose from three. After that, we really started to open up in transition finally. It’s different with Noah [Schutte] getting injured in warmups. That’s a game changer right there but I thought we came out and adjusted to that well. Good win today.”

As coach mentioned, Kulus and Bennett, along with sophomore Jaxon Stueve, went a collective 8-17 from beyond the arch contributing a total 30 points between the three of them. An 11-2 run to begin the second half was all it took for the Bulldogs to get ahead to a 13-point lead, which eventually became a 40-point win.

With all that being said, the game was, perhaps, the second biggest accomplishment of the night, as prior to tip off, Concordia began festivities by celebrating the program’s seniors — Tristan Smith, Bradley Bennett, Riley Hoetfelker, Brayson Mueller, Josh Puelz, Tony Tubrick V and Matt Weismann.

“This could be an emotional day for a lot of people, but we know there’s a lot of basketball left,” said Limback. “It’s a special day that we get to celebrate with our families, but when you know you have good basketball coming up, I think the emotions aren’t quite as heavy. This is a special group to me. To do this on senior day and to honor those guys and the parents for all their support is awesome.”

Concordia now looks to end their regular season on a high note with their final game coming versus the Mount Marty Lancers in Yankton, South Dakota. Tip off for the Bulldogs’ 28th and final regular season game is at 3:45 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 22.