Abbas' Career Night Not Enough

ARDEN HILLS, Minn. (11/21/15) ---  Concordia couldn't overcome the hot shooting of reigning UMAC champion Northwestern and fell 83-64 in a non-conference tilt on Saturday. 

The Eagles shot 51.7% from the field (31-for-60) while scorching the nets from beyond the arc at a clip of 47.8% (11-for-23). Concordia managed to shoot just 40.0% (24-for-60) from the field and 26.3% (5-for-19) from 3-point range. 

Concordia standout Jordan Bolger's absence was greatly felt in more than one way. His 17.5 points per game was missed over the course of the weekend, but his lane presence might have been the most notable. Without the Apple Valley product's activity in the lane, Northwestern outrebounded the Cobbers 40-27.

With the loss Concordia falls to 2-2 overall while Northwestern rolls on and improves to 4-0. 

After a Northwestern 3-pointer, Austin Nelson would pick up right where he left off the night before by burying a triple to even the score 3-3 just 1:30 into the contest. 

Concordia would pull ahead 15-7 after Brady Syverson hit his patented baseline jumper on back-to-back possessions with 12:56 to play in the opening half. 

Northwestern's Wil Gesler then caught fire. Gesler drove in the lane and finished through contact while drawing the foul. He knocked down the free throw then came down on the next possession and hit a three off a kick-out pass. Gesler would score on the following possession to make it 18-16.

Aaron Youngberg knocked down a 3-pointer negating a deep ball from CC's Guilherme Saad moments later. On the following possession Cody Sprenger banked in a fadeaway that forced Cobber head coach Rich Glas to call timeout with his Cobbers trailing 21-20 with 6:12 remaining in the first half. 

Glas subbed in senior guard Corey Abbas who responded to the message sent in the 30-second timeout. The MACCRAY product drifted to the right corner and connected on a trifecta off a Matt Ellingson kickout to tie the game 23-23.

Northwestern continued to answer the bell. Peter Morrell hit a 3-pointer and then Michael Carney came alive. The reigning UMAC Player of the Year was held scoreless for the first 18 minutes of the contest but knocked down a pair of deep triples to complete the Eagles' 18-10 run and give them an eight point cushion that had the Cobbers trailing 38-30 at the intermission.

Carney would not be denied in the second half. He scored the first basket of the second half and would only heat up from there. 

After Syverson knocked down a pair of face-up jumpers at the 16:17 mark the Eagles went on a 14-0 run in which they scored on five of six possessions. Clay Elrod connected from distance and Carney got the friendly roll on a pair of deep balls and suddenly the Cobbers were down 56-37.

The left-handed Syverson continued to connect on jump shots but Carney could not be stopped. He canned a 3-pointer, got loose on a pair of screens, hit contested jumpers and hit free throws after being fouled.

After being held scoreless for the first 18 minutes, Carney pumped in a game-high 23 points over the course of the 12 minutes which were sandwiched between the last minute of the first half and the first 11 minutes of the second half. 

Austin Heins had a pair of layups and a put back to cut the deficit and then Abbas would score six points in a three-minute span to keep the deficit around 20 points. Casey Bruggeman knocked down a trifecta in the closing minute but it was too little too late as the reigning UMAC Conference Champions walked away with the 83-64 win.

BIG DAY FOR C-A: Senior Corey Abbas played well on Saturday afternoon. Coming off the bench, he scored a career-high 12 points on 3-for-6 shooting and 5-for-5 from the charity stripe. Abbas' previous career high came in December of 2013 when he scored 10 points at Bethel.

WHAT'S NEXT? The Cobbers will travel to Crown next Saturday for the final non-conference game before MIAC play starts following Thanksgiving break. Concordia has beaten the Knights the past two seasons by scores of 86-58 (14-15) and 88-72 (13-14).