Johnson Caps Season With Dramatic Long-Range Shot

Feature reprinted courtesy of the Forum and reporter Eric Peterson

MOORHEAD — The Concordia men's basketball team didn't qualify for the conference postseason, but the Cobbers ended their regular season in thrilling fashion over the weekend.

Junior guard Matthew Johnson sank an epic buzzer-beating 3-point shot to lift the Cobbers to a 68-65 victory against Hamline on Saturday in Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play at Memorial Auditorium.

Johnson said it was among his top basketball moments.

"Probably at the top of the line, it was a pretty deep one," Johnson said. "It felt good to send Dave (Birkeland), our lone senior, out on a victory like that. A great jumping board to head into next year."

The Cobbers (11-14, 9-11 MIAC) won five of their final six games and finished seventh in the conference, one spot away from earning a spot in the MIAC tournament. For Concordia, it was the program's most conference wins since the 2016-2017 season.

"I think this was a big year for us to build a belief in our program and our guys," said Cobbers head coach Tyler Bormann, in his third season as head coach. "Hopefully we can parlay that into taking a bigger step next year."

The 6-foot-1 Johnson — a Fergus Falls (Minn.) High School graduate — received a pass from sophomore forward Rowan Nelson near the top of the key. Johnson let if fly from around 30 feet and the sank the shot with less than one second remaining for the victory.

Johnson said he could hear the crowd counting down the seconds on the game clock as he received the pass from Nelson.

"I knew I had to get the shot up and it went in," said Johnson, who added he also had a similar game-winning shot during his freshman year of high school. "I shot it and I knew if it got there it had a good chance to go in."

On their social media, the Cobbers posted a video showing two angles of the clutch shot, one included the radio call from the legendary Larry Knutson, the longtime voice of the Cobbers.

"Here it is, it's on its way, GOOD!" exclaimed Knutson on the call.

The shot set off a spirited reaction on the court and in the stands.

"It was a good feeling," Johnson said. "It was a good way to end the year for sure."

Hamline and St. Olaf both finished one game ahead of the Cobbers in the league standings. Hamline is the No. 6 seed and St. Olaf the No. 5 seed for the MIAC tournament. Concordia was eliminated from postseason contention prior to Saturday's game — after a loss to league champion Carleton the game before — but Johnson said the team was still motivated.

"It was good to have the feel of important games at the end of the year," said Johnson, who transferred from the University of Mary to Concordia prior to this season.

"We still felt like we had a lot to play for," Bormann said. "We had played really good basketball down the stretch."