Late Second-Half Streak Doesn't Carry Into OT

WINONA, Minn. (2/07/15)—Concordia erased an 11-point deficit in the final 6-minutes of regulation but then allowed the final five points in overtime and lost 79-73 at St. Mary's.

It was the first overtime game of the year for the Cobbers and ends a two-game winning streak. Concordia is now 12-9 overall and 8-6 in the MIAC. CC is currently in sole possession of fifth place, one game behind a two-way tie for fourth place.

St. Mary's ends its two-game losing streak and improves to 15-6 overall and 9-5 in league play. The Cardinals are one of the two teams who are directly ahead of Concordia in the conference standings.

The Cobbers chased the game for almost the entire 40 minutes of regulation. Concordia had a brief 15-14 lead in the first half and then trailed the entire second half. CC fell behind by as many as 17 in the opening period of play but scored the final eight points in the half and trailed 36-27 heading into the break.

The second half was a game of point streaks. The Cardinals pushed the lead to 13 points before the Cobbers went on a 13-1 to cut the margin to one point at 41-40. SMU then scored the next six points and pushed the margin to 47-40 at the midway point of the period.

The game would stay around the five-point margin until St. Mary's grabbed an 11-point lead with 5:28 to play. Concordia methodically scratched away at the lead with Olivia Johnson doing most of the damage. She started the late-game rally with a jumper at 5:17 and then tied the game with a 3-pointer with 13-seconds to play. She also made good on a lay-up and converted the and-1 and then hit on a pair of free throws to score 10 of the team's last 15 points in regulation.

Concordia's late second-half momentum didn't carry over into overtime. The Cobbers missed on all four of their shots from behind the arc and went 2-for-8 (25.0%) from the field.

St. Mary's earned the win in the extra session by connecting on 12 of their 14 free throw attempts.

The Cobbers shot 35.4% (23-for-65) from the floor and 39.1% (9-for-23) from 3-point range for the game.  The Cardinals connected on 41.0% (25-for-61) of their shots from the field but only 14.3% (3-for-21) of their attempts from the floor.

The biggest shooting difference came at the free throw line where Concordia went 18-for-23 while the Cardinals made 26 of their 34 foul shot attempts. The 34 free throw attempts is the most by a Cobber opponent this season and most since Bethel shot 48 at the beginning of last season.

Johnson finished with a career-high 21 points. She went 6-for-15 from the floor 2-for-2 from 3-point range and 7-for-7 from the free throw line. Johnson also hauled down nine rebounds.

She was one of three CC players in double figures. Freshman Annalise Savageau also had a career high for the game. She was 3-for-4 from behind the arc and had 14 points. Alley Fisher was the third Cobber player in double digits. She added 10 points.  

Hannah Jeske led all players in rebounds. The junior came away with a career-high 10 boards.

Concordia will face another game against a team directly in front of them in the standings when they host Gustavus on Wednesday, Feb. 11 at 5:45 p.m.