Horseshoe Hits The Ringer

MOORHEAD, Minn. (1/30/23)---This time the horseshoe didn't land in the pit and come oh so close. On Monday, the Cobbers threw a dead-on ringer and beat St. John's 81-76.

Concordia entered the game against the Johnnies having dropped five straight – all by six or fewer points. That streak came to a screeching halt after the Cobbers' used their resiliency to finish off SJU in the final minutes of play. CC led for the entire second half, but had St. John's cut the lead to a single point with 2:06 to play. Concordia then scored 9 of the final 14 points in the game to earn the 5-point victory.

The story of the game came at the free throw line where the Cobbers were a perfect 25-for-25. The 25 makes without a miss in a single game tie a program record for Concordia, and is the most made free throws without a miss in a game by any team in all of NCAA Division, I, II or III.

The second story of the night was the continued strong play from freshman Jacob Cook. Cook went 10-for-13 from the floor, 2-for-2 from distance and finished with a career-high 27 points. He also added five rebounds. Cook is averaging 14.7 points over his last four games after having only scored over 14 points once in the first 16 games of the year.

Concordia (7-13, 5-10 MIAC) had three other players score in double figures. Matthew Johnson led the CC free throw brigade by going 9-for-9 from the line. He finished with 18 points and hauled down a team-high nine rebounds. Johnson has led the team in rebounds in two of the past three games.

Rowan Nelson and Alex Huber both went for 13 points. Nelson was 4-for-4 from the foul line, and also had five rebounds. Huber was 4-for-7 from the floor and 5-for-5 from the free throw stripe.

St. John's (12-7, 9-5 MIAC) shot 47.2% (25-for-53) from the floor, 36.4% (8-for-22) from outside the arc and a respectable 90.0% (18-for-20) from the foul line.

UP NEXT: The Cobbers will finish off their 3-game homestand when they host Macalester on Wednesday, Feb. 1 at 5:15 p.m.