Second-Half Shooting Earns Second Straight Win

MOORHEAD, Minn. (01/08/22)---Concordia shot 65.2% (15-for-23) in the second half against St. Scholastica to turn a 6-point halftime deficit into a 70-62 win.

The Cobbers outscored the Saints 43-29 in the final 20 minutes of play to rally and post their second straight victory.

Concordia is now 3-6 in all games and 3-4 in the MIAC. The Cobbers are now tied with St. Olaf for sixth place in the league standings.

St. Scholastica (1-10, 0-7 MIAC) flew out of the gates. They scored 11 of the first 15 points in the game to grab an early 11-4 lead. They would never trail in the first half of play and pushed the led to nine points on two different occasions.

The game turned in the Cobbers' favor at the start of the second half. Buoyed by an inspirational halftime chat by head voach Tyler Bormann, Concordia scored the first seven points of the period and took a slight 34-33 lead.

The Saints recovered to post an 8-2 streak and retake the lead at 41-36. That's when the bottom fell out for the Saints, and CC started to find its offensive rhythm. Concordia outscored Scholastica 16-0 in a period of 4-minutes, and turned a 46-42 deficit into a 58-46 lead. During that stretch, CC forced four turnovers and went 6-for-6 from the floor and made four straight free throws.

Concordia then pushed the lead to as many as 15 points and coasted to the finish line to win by eight.

The Cobbers finished the game by shooting 58.7% (27-for-46) from the floor and 30.0% (3-for-10) from 3-point range. CC did most of their work from arund the basket as they outscored CSS 40-30 in points in the paint.

Concordia also held a 30-25 edge in rebounding and 13-12 edge in points off of turnovers.

Junior Braeton Motschenbacher came off the bench to lead all players with 18 points and eight rebounds. The 18 points are the most since the second game of the season for Motschenbacher and the eight boards tie his season best mark.

Concordia had three other players finish with double-digit scoring totals. Freshman Dylan Inniger was 6-for-9 from the floor and put up 17 points, while fellow first-year player Rowan Nelson went 8-for-9 from the line and added 14 points. Junior point guard Jackson Jangula was 5-for-7 from the field and had 10 points.

Nelson has now scored at least points in all nine games for the Cobbers. He leads the team with a 16.1 points per game average. Motschenbacher is second with a 13.0 ppg average and Inniger has averaged 10.3 points per game.                   
  
UP NEXT: Concordia will head out on the road for a midweek game against Augsburg on Wednesday, Jan. 12 at 7:15 p.m. The Cobbers were originally schedule to play at Gustavus on Monday, Jan. 10, but due to Covid protocol, the were awarded a win by forfeit.