A Rare New Year Openening Loss

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (1/2/2017) --- The first game of the New Year has been kind to Concordia in the past four seasons but on Tuesday the Cobbers didn't hit enough shots down the stretch and dropped an 86-81 decision at Augsburg. 

The Cobbs had four players score in double figures but lost the first game of the calendar year for the first time since 2012. 

Austin Heins paced Concordia with 17 points on 8-of-9 shooting along with four rebounds while Guilherme Saad added 16 points off the bench off of four triples. 

Concordia drops to 5-4 overall and 2-2 in league play while Augsburg improves to an identical 5-4 record but 3-1 in MIAC games. 

It was the Collin Olmscheid show for Augsburg from the tip. The Buffalo, Minn. product had 18 points on 8-of-10 shooting in the opening 20 minutes.

The Cobbers hung around thanks to Heins dropping in 10 of his team-high 17 points and a pair of triples from Saad. Dylan Alderman connected on a wing trifecta in the half's waning moments to make it 47-45 at the intermission. 

CC scored the first seven points of the second half as Alderman had one basket and Zach Kinny drilled a 3-pointer and converted a pair of free throws to give the Cobbers a 52-47 advantage. 

Concordia gained the lead at the 19:07 mark of the second half off the Kinny deep ball and gradually built an eight point lead at 66-58 with 11:58 remaining after an Alderman lay up. 

Augsburg went on their run to get back into the game. 

Over the next three minutes Augsburg went on a 11-3 run to tie the game at 69-69 with nine minutes to go. 

The teams exchanged hoops over the next five minutes when Saad connected on a 3-pointer to give Concordia the 78-76 advantage with 4:20 to play. 

The Cobbers would score just three points over the final four minutes and change as Augsburg ended the game on a 10-3 run. 

Trailing 82-79 and needing a stop, Concordia forced Olmscheid into a tough baseline jumper that touched every part of the rim before dropping in to give Augsburg the five-point lead. 

Concordia recorded a single digit turnover game (7) for the second straight contest and dominated the paint as they outscored Augsburg 42-24 in points in the lane but the Auggies shot the ball better from beyond the arc and at the foul line. 

Augsburg went 8-of-15 (53.3%) from 3-point range and 18-of-21 (85.7%) from the charity stripe while CC managed to just shoot 8-of-21 (38.1%) from distance and 9-of-17 (52.9%) from the line. 

RINGING IN THE NEW YEAR – 2017 didn't start according to plan for the Cobbers with the five point loss to Augsburg. In head coach Rich Glas' nine years at Concordia this is just the second time CC has not won the first contest of the new calendar year. The other loss was in 2012 when they lost 73-66 at Bethel. 

FEED THE BIG GUY – Austin Heins posted his second straight big scoring output. He tallied 17 points – the second highest point total of his career – on Monday after putting up a career-high 20 points in the final game of 2016 on Friday. The junior is now third in the MIAC in shooting percentage as he is shooing 70.9% on the season. In his last two games he is 16-of-21 from the field and is averaging 18.5 points in those contests. 

GUI FOR THREE – Guilherme Saad connected on 4-of-7 tries from downtown and is now second in the league in 3-point percentage. The Brazilian has connected on 51.9% of his tries from deep this season. 

WHAT'S NEXT? Concordia's tough stretch to start out 2017 continues on Wednesday as they head to Collegeville to take on St. John's. The Johnnies are 7-2 overall and 3-1 in the conference after a 75-65 win over St. Olaf on Monday.