Men’s basketball suffers first loss of season, 95-88 against Morningside Mustangs

Senior forward Tristan Smith (22) takes a shot at the basket (photo from previous game).

Photo credit: Maddy Peters

By Isaac Dawson

No. 9 Concordia Men’s Basketball suffered their first loss this season on Saturday, falling in the latter half to the Morningside University Mustangs with a final score of 95-88.

Neither team had the spice in the first half when it came to jump shots of any distance; the Mustangs took a 3-15 ratio from the three-point line, and Concordia 3-14. The Bulldogs got edged out of victory slowly but surely, not quite getting back to it after halftime to match Morningside’s bull rush, who turned around their three ratio to 5-9 while the Bulldogs went 3-13.

Senior forward Tristan Smith was the leading scorer for the Bulldogs, putting up 34 points, all of which were layups or slam dunks. Layups were the law of the land for Concordia on Saturday, who put up a field goal ratio of 34-69, a three-point ratio of 6-27, and 14-23 for free throws.

“In the second half we came out slow; we didn’t come out with a hunger, and we were playing on our heels,” said Smith, “Morningside’s a great offensive team, and when you’re playing tentative they’re going to put up 57 in a half like they did today.”

Sophomore Lukas Helms, senior Noah Schutte, and sophomore Hayden Frank also joined Smith up in the realm of double-digits, adding a respectable 11, 14, and 12 points to Concordia’s scoreboard. Junior Zac Kulus had the most assists at four. Smith achieved a double-double hitting a team high 13 rebounds.

The first half saw a strong start from the Bulldogs, who maintained a steady lead over the Mustangs with a steady gain via the odd free throw and doing well in the paint on offense. Smith dominated the paint on offense, getting three well placed slam dunks as icing on the cake, while Morningside saw good Concordia defensive rebounding. Leaving the Mustangs behind by nine at the end of the half, the second seemed like it would favor the Bulldogs.

The second half started poorly for Concordia, whose offense wasn’t what it used to be, much like Iron Mike Tyson after round two.

For about 10 minutes it seemed like the Bulldogs might hold on, but Morningside was relentless. Mustangs Joey Skoff, Aidan Vanderloo, and Daniel Brocaille together put up a huge number of points in the second, going from 12, six and 13 points respectively in the first to 26, 21 and 20 total by the end of the game.

The Mustangs took the lead and held onto it with five minutes in the half. They used fouls to their advantage, somewhat ruining coach Ben Limback’s timeout plan for the team and pushing Concordia ever so slightly further back until it all ended at 95-88.

“We did poorly on free throws, and didn’t shoot well from the line,” said Coach Limback. “That’s a very good team. In guard play they spread us out; second half they just went at us. But really defensively we were just not very good the second half. We said, ‘don’t foul!’ and ‘get the rebound!’ We were trying to pressure it into someone else’s hands besides their two lead guards, but they ended up getting a foul at the end of the shot clock which stung a bit… We were just trying to build some confidence and get the stop and hopefully a bucket.”

The loss puts Concordia at a season record of 3-1, starting out at 0-1 in the Great Plains Athletic Conference. Concordia drives down to Sioux Center to face the Dordt University Defenders on their home turf for their next matchup on November 3 at 3:45 p.m.