Men's Basketball
Men's Basketball
Men's Basketball at Concordia: SCSU 69, CU 67
MEN’S BASKETBALL: Last Second Heroics Lift Huskies Past Golden Bears, 69-67
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
After hitting what looked like the game winning shot with 48 seconds left, Spencer Bartz got a chance to secure the win again, and did not dissapoint with his game winning bucket with less than a second on the clock. |
St. Paul, Minn. – Spener Bartz (Hinckley, Minn.) scored five of their last eight points as the St. Cloud State men’s basketball team snuck out of the Gangelhoff Center in St. Paul with a 69-67 win over Concordia University this evening, Feb. 25.
It looked as if St. Cloud State (18-8, 13-6) had it won earlier when Bartz completed a three-point play to give SCSU a one-point lead with 48 seconds to go at 64-63. However, Concordia (12-14, 10-9) quickly showed that they had other plans as Craig Heiman hit a pair of free throws on the next trip down the floor to give CU the lead at 65-64 just 23 ticks left on the clock.
Not wanting to miss out on the excitement, Taylor Witt (Morris, Minn.) hit what appeared to be the game winning three with 14 seconds to go, giving the Huskies a two-point lead at 67-65. But as we had seen before, the Golden Bears did not go away, and on the next possession, Mike Cunningham drove the baseline for two of his team high 17 points, tying the game for the third time in the final minute.
With just six seconds remaining, Bartz got the ball again. This time, instead of finding his usual place around the arc, he drove through the Concordia defense straight to the basket to lay-in the game winning points, giving St. Cloud State a 69-67 lead with 0:00.9 left on the clock.
A desperation heave from CU down the court to tie it in the final second landed out of bounds, turning the ball over to SCSU, allowing a simple in-bound pass to secure the win.
Craig Coenen (Kaukauna, Wis.) paced the Huskies in the opening half, playing his best basketball of the season. The biggest of his 15 first half points were the final two, that broke a 31-31 tie and gave SCSU a two-point lead at the intermission, 33-31.
When Coenen scored the fifth and sixth of his first-half points on a tip-in at the 12:05 mark, he gave SCSU an early 10-point lead at 15-5. After a CU rally, another Coenen tip-in at the 6:45 mark pushed the SCSU lead back to nine at 25-16.
However, after Coenen’s tip-in, CU countered with four straight points, forcing SCSU head coach Kevin Schlagel to call his first timeout. Coming out of the timeout the Huskies were able to get one bucket on the board before the Golden Bears went on 10-2 run capped by two Matt Hackl free throws to take their first lead at 30-29 with 1:38 to go.
After trailing for the first time of the half, Josh Ortmann (Buffalo, Minn.) then gave the Huskies the lead right back with a drive to the basket and a lay-up at the 1:31 mark.
Early in the second half, the Huskies lost the ball on an in-bounds play and the Golden Bears responded with a three-pointer from leading scorer Craig Heiman, forcing the Huskies into their first timeout of the half.
Out of the timeout, Bartz hit back-to-back three’s to give the Huskies a four point lead at 44-40 at 13:23 mark.
The two teams would trade buckets back and forth throughout the half, with neither team leading by more than four points. Concordia hit two free throws at the 9:29 mark to take a one-point lead, and would go on to hold the lead until the 13:33 mark when SCSU was able to tie it up.
Coenen hit the tying bucket after a loose ball was corralled by Witt and passed to him under the basket to the tie score at 52-52. From that point the score was tied five more times and the lead changed hands six times before the Huskies won it.
Coenen led the way with his second career double-double with career highs of 21 points and 14 rebounds. Witt ha 13 points and Bartz had 12.
The win was the first on the road versus Concordia since the 2003-04 season, and moves SCSU into a tie at third place in the NSIC standings. The biggest discrepancy of the night was the 45-30 advantage that SCSU held on the boards, including 21-7 margin in offensive rebounds.
The Huskies now return to Halenbeck Hall to close out the season against Winona State in the Red-Out. Winona State beat Upper Iowa 77-61 tonight, and is in second place in the conference standings.
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