Men’s Basketball Holds off Red Raiders

by Garrett Suchanek

Saturday afternoon the Concordia men’s basketball team picked up their first win of the calendar year and a much needed conference win. After dropping two road conference games earlier in the week, the Bulldogs (11-6, 5-6) found a way to muster up enough offense to hold on for an 87-81 victory at Northwestern College.

Early on in the first half, Concordia trailed by as many as seven points, but that didn’t rattle a veteran group of Bulldogs. By the midway point of the first half, the Bulldogs erased the Red Raider lead and had the game knotted at 18 apiece. After tying the game, it was back and forth for the next few minutes.

At the 6:26 mark, Concordia broke a 26-26 tie and went on a 9-0 run. For the rest of the half, both teams traded blows, but the Bulldogs went into halftime with a 44-39 lead.

To start the second half, Concordia brought intensity and played at a high level. With 19 minutes left in the game, the Bulldogs held a 46-41 lead and extended the lead to 56-41 over the next four minutes. Concordia was able to get a 16-point lead in the second half before the Red Raiders started their comeback.

With 9:34 left, the Bulldogs led 70-55, but that’s when the tide began to turn. The Bulldogs had a dry spell, failed to score a point until the 6:44 mark and didn’t score until 4:28 left in the game.

The game got as close as 80-78 with 1:20 left, but Concordia used a combination of stellar defense and efficient offense to outscore the Red Raiders 7-3 over the last minute of the game.

Junior Chandler Folkerts recorded his third straight double-double with a game-high 34 points and 14 rebounds. Seniors Robby Thomas and Jamie Pearson also recorded double figure points and finished with 19 and 12 points respectively.

Concordia will take a break from conference action and take on York College at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 13.