Second-Half Rally Falls 3-Seconds Short
Concordia rallied from a 10-point halftime deficit and had the ball with the game tied and 15-seconds to play, but a steal by Macalester led to the game-winning layup.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (01/26/22)---Despite freshman Rowan Nelson tying his season-high point total, Concordia is still in search of its elusive first road win of the year.
Nelson poured in 25 points, including a layup with 2:05 to play in the second half to give the Cobbers a 63-62 lead, but the Scots came up a steal with 5-seconds left in regulation, raced the length of the court and put home the winning basket in a 67-65 win.
Concordia rallied from a 10-point halftime deficit and took the lead on a pair of occasions in the second half of the final period of play. The Cobbers would then have a chance to knock home the game-winning basket in the final 17-seconds of play. Concordia's defense forced an off-balance shot by Macalester with 23 ticks left on the clock and junior Braeton Motschenbacher was able to come up with the rebound. CC brought the ball up the court to set up for the potential game-winning shot, but a steal after the initial entry pass gave the Scots the uncontested layup and the win.
The Cobbers outscored Macalester 39-31 in the second after the Scots raced to a 36-26 lead at the halftime break by draining eight 3-pointer in the first 20 minutes of play.
The loss is the seventh straight on the road for the Cobbers this season. Concordia is now 4-9 overall and 3-7 in MIAC play. Macalester wins for the fourth straight game and ups its marks to 8-9 and 5-7 in league play.
Concordia shot 50.0% (16-for-32) from the field in the second half of play and had a 42.9% (24-for-56) success rate for the game. The Cobbers went 7-for-15 (46.7%) from distance and 10-for-13 (76.9%) from the foul line.
Macalester cooled off in the second half from outside the arc, but still made 11 shots from distance for the game. They went 27-for-65 (41.5%) from the floor, 11-for-34 (32.4%) from 3-point range and 2-for-4 (50.0%) from the free throw line.
Nelson was 10-for-22 from the floor and 2-for-5 from distance as he tied his collegiate high of 25 points. He also put in 25 at St. John's on Dec. 4. Nelson leads the team in scoring this year with a 17.6 ppg average. That mark is third overall in the MIAC and most among first-year players. Nelson has scored at least 10 points in all 13 of the Cobbers' contests this year.
Concordia had two other players finish with more than 10 points in the game. Motschenbacher was 6-for-9 from the floor and had 13 points, while freshman Dylan Inniger was 4-for-8 and added 11 points.
Talon Hoffer added to his team-leading rebound total. He grabbed eight boards and had eight points. Hoffer is now averaging 5.6 rpg which is tied for 12th in the conference.
UP NEXT: Concordia will return home to face second-place St. John's on Saturday, Jan. 29 at 3 p.m. The Johnnies are 14-3 overall and 11-1 in MIAC play. They have won three straight and are 8-0 in road games this season.