You Just Never Know What's Going To Happen

MOORHEAD, Minn. (11/22/22)---The best thing about sports is that you never know what's going to happen.

That statement was in full effect on Tuesday as winless Concordia led wire-to-wire and rolled over unbeaten St. Olaf 73-61.

The Cobbers outshot, outrebounded and outplayed the Oles for 40 minutes in gaining their first win of the year and first conference victory of the season. CC is now 1-3 overall and 1-1 in league play. St. Olaf could never get on track offensively, and could never get consistent stops on defense and had their unbeaten streak end at three games. The Oles, who played a close exhibition game with DI University of Minnesota and beat defending MIAC champion St. John's on Saturday, is now 3-1 in all games and a similar 1-1 in league play.

The story of the game was the team defense for the Cobbers. CC didn't allow St. Olaf to get second-chance points, and held a 17-7 advantage in points off of turnovers.

Concordia set the tone from the opening tap as they scored 12 of the first 17 points. The Cobber defense held the Oles to 2-for-7 shooting during that stretch. St. Olaf was able to cut into the Cobber lead and got to within five points on six different occasions, but each time Concordia had an answer and extended the lead back to seven points on the next possession.

The biggest turning point of the second half came when St. Olaf trimmed a 9-point halftime deficit to five points. Concordia responded with a 14 -1 run that turned a 37-32 score line into an 18-point lead at 51-33 with 12:57 remaining in regulation.

The Oles were never able to get within single digits for the final 12-minutes of play, and the Cobbers earned the 12-point win.

Concordia had four of its five starters finish with double-digit point totals. Senior guard Jackson Jangula led the Cobbers for the second straight game. He went 4-for-7 from the field, and a perfect 8-for-8 from the foul line, and finished with a game-high 17 points. He also added three assists.

Junior Rowan Nelson had 15 points, including a hammer 2-hand dunk that sparked the crowd in the second half of play.

Senior David Birkeland recorded his season-high point total. He was 2-for-3 from distance and finished with 14 points.              

Alex Huber was 5-for-10 from the floor, finished with 13 points and grabbed a team-high nine rebounds.

UP NEXT: Concordia will have a mini-break for Thanksgiving, and return to action when they host Gustavus on Saturday, Nov. 26 at 2 p.m.