Defense Grounds #22 Cardinals

MOORHEAD, Minn.  (1/03/15)—Concordia led wire-to-wire, forced 21 turnovers and didn't allow a 3-point field goal as they kicked off the 2015 calendar year with a 55-41 win over No.22-ranked St. Mary's.

The Cobbers jumped on the Cardinals from the opening tip as they scored the first eight points in the game in recording their first conference win of the season. CC is now 6-4 in all games and 1-2 in MIAC. St. Mary's loses for the third straight game after winning their first eight games of the season. SMU is now 8-3 in all games and 2-2 in league play.

Concordia and St. Mary's traded runs in the first half of the opening period of play. The Cobbers then went on a decisive 13-2 run to push a one-point advantage at 13-12 into an 11-point margin at 25-14 with 4:41 left in the first half.

The Cobbers finished the half with a 10-point lead at 30-20 and then survived a 5-0 run at the start of the second period by the Cardinals. CC was able to slowly gain back their double-digit lead midway through the final frame and then didn't allow SMU to get to within seven points for the final 10 minutes of play.

Concordia head coach Jessica Rahman credited the team's defense for the win.

"I think it was definitely our defensive flow," said Rahman. "We rotated really well, picked each other up really well and – minus the first five minutes of the game – I thought we rebounded the ball really well."

The Cobbers' team defense led to 21 turnovers for St. Mary's. CC also came away with 42 rebounds which marks only the fourth time this season that the team grabbed at least 40 rebounds in a game.

The other key was Concordia's perimeter defense which didn't allow wide open 3-point chances. The Cardinals weren't able to connect on a single 3-point basket – going 0-for-14 for the game. It is the first time in the past 81 games that SMU didn't make a 3-point field goal in a game.

The Cobber offense was able to get inside to get good looks at the basket all afternoon long. CC scored 22 of their 55 points from inside the paint. That was the good news. The bad news was that Concordia shot a season-low 16.7% (3-for-18) from outside the arc and connected on only 28.8% (17-for-59) of their shots from the field. It is the first time since Jan. 10, 2010 they have won a game when shooting under 30-percent from the field.    

Cobber senior guard Alley Fisher came up with several key baskets and free throw attempts in the second half. She finished with a game-high 20 points after going 4-for-11 from the floor and 10-for-14 from the free throw line. Fisher attempted more free throws than the entire St. Mary's team combined (9-for-12).

Fisher's 20 points marks the second time this season she has scored over 19 points in a game. She now has 972 career points and needs 28 more to become the 27th player in program history to reach the 1000-point plateau.

Fellow senior Erin Januschka was stellar around the basket for the entire 40 minutes and recorded her first career double-double. Januschka was the only other CC player to score more than five points in the game. She finished with 13 points to go along with a career-high 12 rebounds.   

Olivia Johnson came away with her second straight double-digit rebound total. She had 10 rebounds in the game and is now averaging 8.0 rebounds per game which is third best in the MIAC.

Concordia will continue with their four games-in- seven days stretch when they play at Macalester on Monday, Jan. 5 at 5:45 p.m.