Thursday, January 12, 2012

Concordia 1/11/12

Last night we took on the Cobbers from Concordia in an unusual mid-week doubleheader with the women. We got going after the Lady Cobbers took down the Lady Pipers. The Cobbers only traveled with ten guys and three coaches which is much less than they have at home (especially the coaches). Aaron Lindhal also traveled with them. He went down with a knee injury against us when we played up there and had surgery last Thursday. I hope him the best in his recovery.

The game didn't exactly start how we wanted to as the Fighting Cordies (we'll go with nicknames similar to other schools) got off to a 7-0 start. They got a few layups in transition and looked to be on their game. Ebo Nana-Kweson got off to great start and we had no answer for him. We went on a 10-0 run ourselves to take the lead. There was a TON of action in the first half as neither team decided to play much defense. Every time I thought we would extend our lead a little, they had an answer. Ebo and Dewon McKenzie combined for 30 points in the first half as we were tied 47-47 in a big time defensive struggle.

The second half got off to a great start for the Hammies (that's us) as we went on an 8-0 run and got the lead to as many as 14 with about 13 minutes to go. I thought we had them on the ropes but to their credit, they battled and made big shot after big shot. After the mid way point of the second half, it seemed like who ever would get a stop would get the win. We seemed to be in control but we were always on edge as the Cordies made a punch of tough shots.

Last in the game, we seemed to be in a little bit of a panic mode. It was almost as if we were playing like we were behind. Instead, we were up six and taking shots early in the shot clock. A little frustrating to say the least. On our last possession, we were in a little bit of a scramble mode and Dior ended up hitting a 3 to basically clinch the game as we were up 3 at that point. It definitely gave us a sigh of relief on the bench.

Final score: Hammies 89 - Cordies 83. We held them to 55% shooting from the floor (that's sarcasm). They outrebounded us by five. We ended up with five less turnovers and made five more free throws. We ended up with five guys in double figures and two more with 8. We'll take the win.

One another note, we had our own knee injury last night as Christian Taber went down. He was playing really well and was giving us a great spark off the bench. Prognosis on the knee = not good.

We take on Bethel on Saturday at their place. I believe they have live video and stats and I'll have a link on Friday or Saturday.

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