Prophetic 12 Possessions in St. Peter

ST. PETER, Minn. (11/30/16) --- There were 12 apostles in biblical times and St. Peter, the patron saint of the hometown of Gustavus, must have been on the Gusties' side on Wednesday as Concordia dropped a 92-75 decision in the conference opener for both schools.

Gustavus was blessed to score on 12 straight possessions that started at 10:15 of the second half and wound all the way down to the 4-minute mark. That stretch turned a five-point lead into a 90-67 advantage.     

The Gusties' 27-9 run proved to be the difference maker in a game that dropped Concordia's record to 2-3. Gustavus wins for the first time this season and moved to 1-2. 

The decisive streak was started by Riley Sharbono who heated up quick as he started the run by hitting a triple on the second possession of the stretch. He then proceeded to knock down three long balls in four trips down the floor and another 3-pointer minutes later to give him four trifectas in the run. 

The Cobbers put together a six-point possession on five free throws and a buzzer beater to tie the game at the half and entered the second half knotted at 43-43. The six-point play came about when Dylan Alderman was fouled on a 3-point try from the top of the key. A technical foul was issued to Gustavus and Zach Kinny connected on both of the awarded free throws. Alderman then hit the first two of his three free throws shots on the original foul. 

The Fargo native clanked the third attempt to the right but Dawson Peterson snagged the board and found Alderman who hit a jumper at the buzzer to complete the six-point swing. 

Gustavus came out of the break and built a seven point lead at 59-52 but a triple from Austin Nelson and an old-fashioned three-point play from Chris Duke cut the deficit to 61-58. 

Spencer Tollefson hit an elbow jumper on the next possession to start the 12-possession run followed by the Sharbono entourage of deep balls to blow the game wide open. 

Concordia shot 50% (24-of-48) from the floor but struggled from beyond the arc as CC went 3-for-15 from 3-point range. The Cobbers also got to the charity stripe 39 times but only managed to connect on 24 (61.5%) of those attempts. 

The Cobbs won the rebounding battle 35-33 but the Gusties fast-paced offense assisted on 17 field goals and their bench outscored CC's 33-13. 

Sharbono led a quintet of Gustavus players in double figures with 20 points. 

Aldermen led Concordia with a game-high 22 points. Nelson added 12 points while Kinny chipped in with 11.

Peterson had a team-high seven rebounds for the Cobbers.

THE DA IS ON GUSTAVUS' CASE: Dylan Alderman's 22 points was a season high for the senior from Fargo. It was also the second highest point total of his career. His career-high is 27 points which also came against the Gusties in last year's thrilling 114-107 double overtime win in Moorhead.

ROAD TRIP NERD STAT: CC has its three longest road trips of the season during the current three-game stretch. Once they wrap up in Winona on Saturday they will have traveled 1,724 miles and all those miles came in a seven-day stretch and were exclusively in the state of Minnesota. 

WHAT'S NEXT? Concordia will finish up their three-game road trip on Saturday as they travel to Winona to take on St. Mary's. The Cardinals sit at 3-1 overall as they are coming off a 74-67 conference win over Carleton.