A Home-Opening Senior Moment

MOORHEAD, Minn. (11/19/16)—Last year Concordia had their eight seniors lead by example on their way to a third-place finish in the MIAC. On Saturday, in this year's home opener, it was this year's three Cobber seniors who led by example in an 88-64 win over Crown.

Dylan Alderman, Zach Kinny and Austin Nelson all played key roles in Concordia's first win of the year. Alderman had a game-high 19 points while Kinny had a game-high six rebounds and Nelson scored 10 points and hauled down four rebounds.

The trio also provided clutch offensive plays as time was running down on Cobber possessions in the game-deciding first half. The three players went 5-for-9 in the opening half and scored 20 of the team's 47 points.

Crown (0-2) hit a 3-pointer at the 17:12 mark of the opening period to take a 7-4 lead but then Concordia scored six straight points and 22 of the next 28 points to seize control of the game and grab a 13-point lead at 26-13 midway through the half.

The Cobbers would push the lead to 19 points at the break as junior Guilherme Saad scored six of the team's final 10 points.

Concordia then pushed the lead to 27 points midway through the second half. Crown was never able to get closer than 22 for the remainder of the game and the Cobbers were able to play 13 players in the game with 12 scoring at least one point.

Concordia ended up shooting 55.4% (31-for-56) from the floor and 33.3% (5-for-15) from outside the arc. CC was able to get to the foul line all night long and went 21-for-28 (75.0%) from the charity stripe.

Alderman led the Cobber free throw attack by going 11-for-12 from the stripe.

In addition to the double-figure point totals from Alderman and Nelson, juniors Saad and Kevin Wolfe added 11 points each. Saad didn't miss a shot in game, connecting on his only 3-point shot and going 5-for-5 from the floor. Wolfe was 5-for-6 from the field and also had three rebounds.

QUOTABLE: "I've been getting a lot of garbage from the guys and the coaches about missing them so today I just had to put a stop to that." – Senior Dylan Alderman on his free success against Crown after going 2-for-4 against Morris in the opener and 2-for-5 against NDSU in an exhibition game.

BACK TO THE FUTURE: The 11 made free throws by Alderman ties a career high in a single game. He was also 11-for-12 against Carleton last season. Alderman has a career free throw percentage of 84.2-percent.       

BRAZILIAN HEAT: Junior Guilherme Saad, who hails from Sao Paol, Brazil had a career high in points against Crown. His 11 points was three better than his previous high which came in last year's season opener against Minn.-Morris.

WHAT'S NEXT: Concordia will cap off the pre-Thanksgiving portion of its schedule when they host cross-town rival MSU Moorhead on Tuesday, Nov. 22 at 7:45 p.m. The Dragons are 3-1 on the year and are coming off a 90-82 win over Michigan Tech.