Senior Day Fight To The Finish

STORY LINE: Concordia honored its four seniors before their season-finale game with Gustavus and then fought until the very end to try and give the quartet one last victory on the Memorial Auditorium floor. In the end it was a 9-0 run by the Gusties midway through the second half which proved to be the deciding factor in the 81-68 final score.

RECORDS: Concordia finishes the 2019 season with a 7-18 overall record and a 6-14 mark in the MIAC. The Cobbers finish eighth in the final MIAC standings. Gustavus earns the final spot in the 6-team conference tournament as they up their league mark to 8-12. The Gusties are 11-14 overall.

FIRST HALF FIGHT: The Cobbers and Gusties battled through a tight first half with seven lead changes and five tie scores. Concordia was able to take a 2-point lead into the break when junior John Reiten made a pair of free throws in the final 10-seconds of play to unlock a 30-30 tie. In the end, the game featured 12 lead changes and eight tie scores.

GETTING TO THE LINE: One of the keys in the second half was Gustavus' ability to get to the free throw line. The Gusties went 9-for-12 from the foul stripe as opposed to a 2-for-4 mark for the Cobbers.

POSSESSION POINTS: The final team stats were almost identical. Concordia shot 46.8% from the floor as opposed to 47.8% for Gustavus. The Gusties held a 4-3 edge in 3-point field goals while the Cobbers had a 39-38 advantage in rebounds. The biggest difference came from number of possessions in the game. CC made 29 field goals in their 62 possessions while GAC had seven more possessions and made four more field goals.

PETERSON PRIDE: Senior Dawson Peterson finished his collegiate career by putting up a career-high point total. Peterson led Concordia with 14 points and went 6-for-10 from the floor. His previous season high was seven points.

FINISH WITH AN EXCLAMATION POINT: Senior Jordan Davis capped his career with a Hollywood finish. With time winding down in the final minute of play, the Cobbers called for a back door cut for Davis. He broke to the basket and then freshman David Birkeland put up a perfect alley-oop pass which Davis caught in midair and then slammed home for a career-ending dunk. Davis was taken off the floor for the final time seconds later. Davis finished the game with nine points.

11 THE HARD WAY: Concordia had four players average 11 points in conference play. Sophomore Bryden Urie led the team with an 11.6 average.  Seniors Jordan Davis and Collin Larson averaged 11.1 ppg each and junior Tommy Schyma ended the year with an 11.0 ppg average.