AZUSA, Calif. – The weather outside may have been somewhat frightful but the play inside CU Arena was downright chilling.
The NAIA's No. 7-ranked Azusa Pacific and unranked Concordia combined for nearly 100 missed shots and slopped their way through what was supposed to be a collegiate basketball game. In the end, Concordia came out on top, upsetting the Cougars, 55-47, to snap Azusa Pacific's 11-game winning streak.
Early this season, Azusa Pacific struggled with its shot, barely shooting over 40% as a team through the first 14 games of the campaign. And though the Cougars never quite caught fire, they did move their clip up to 47% as a collective group. Tonight, however, was freefall to the past and then some.
The Cougar shot an icy 23.5% from the floor, missing a whopping 52-of-68 shots, and yet surprisingly they were never out of the game because Concordia made just 18-of-51 shots (35%).
Concordia led wire-to-wire and was up by as much as 12 at one point, but the Eagles could never put away Azusa Pacific.
The Cougars trailed 29-21 at halftime after making just 9-of-38 shots in the first half. They rallied back to within 2 at 35-33 with 13 minutes left in the game after a Brice Prather jump hook. The Eagle lead continued on a yo-yo string moving out 7 but falling back to 2 at 44-42 after a pair of Prather free throws with 5-and-a-half minutes left in the game.
The Cougars missed a pair of 3-point shots to tie the game in the final 90 seconds and Concordia made 5-of-6 free throws to pull away for the victory.
Not one Cougar scored in double figures. Prather and Colton Cornfoot both recorded team-highs of 9 points and 4 rebounds. However leading scorers Lance Soderberg (15 ppg) and Larry English (12 ppg) were a combined 3-for-24 from the floor and tallied just 10 points.
A year ago, Azusa Pacific led the NAIA in 3-point shooting. Tonight they made just 1 while missing 19 other attempts.
Concordia was paced by Victor Nance's game-high 14 points off the bench. Clint Hull added 13.
The 47 points are the fewest scored by an Azusa Pacific team since Utah held the Cougars to 47 in 1998.
With the loss the Cougars fall to 20-6 overall, 12-3 in the GSAC, a half-game ahead of second-place Biola. Concordia improves to 20-6 overall, 10-5 in the GSAC.
