Tanner Luster, a burly 6-foot-8 senior center, manhandled his way through Azusa Pacific's interior defense to lead the NAIA's No. 24-ranked Concordia to a 63-59 upset in the championship game of the GSAC Postseason Tournament. In the process, he solidified the conference coaches' affirmation as the GSAC's top player this year.

Luster registered game highs of 16 points and 12 rebounds, of which 10 and 6, respectively, came in the second half when the Eagles needed him most. Concordia let a 12-point first-half cushion evaporate in the heat of the 2 Azusa Pacific runs, including a 16-9 sprint at the start of the second half that resulted a 47-43 Cougar advantage.

Luster, though, scored half of his points in the final 13 minutes of play all on short turnaround jumpers or lay-ups, including 2 that sandwiched a Clint Hull 3-pointer that gave Concordia a 50-47 lead that it would not relinquish the rest of the way.

"Luster is awfully good, and he pretty much did whatever he wanted to tonight," said Azusa Pacific coach Bill Odell.

Despite never leading over the final 12 minutes of the game, the Cougars never drifted too far away and pulled to within one at 60-59 on a Larry English jumper in the key with 1:13 left in the game. However, Luster answered with another lay-up with 43 seconds left and then obstructed English's path to the bucket on the ensuing possession to force a wild shot that Concordia rebounded to clinch the victory.

The conference title game is supposed to determine a GSAC rep to the NAIA Tournament, but both teams had already secured automatic berths, and by the time the game tipped off, the entire 32-team NAIA Tournament field was already settled. Thus in essence, this GSAC title game was reduced to something just above an exhibition contest, and Azusa Pacific played like it.

"Mentally, we weren't with it tonight," said Odell. "We were dribbling too much, and for us to be successful we have to get things off ball movement and screens. We have to be in sync, and we weren't. But you have to give them credit, defensively they took us out of what we wanted to do, and we weren't patient."

Sophomore Josh Dillon, who was inserted in the starting line-up just 8 games ago, continues to improve with each outing. After collecting a career-high 8 rebounds in Saturday's semifinal win over The Master's, he came back tonight to tally a career-high 14 points, to go along with 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals in 30 minutes of work. He was a perfect 6-for-6 from the floor, which included a trey. Mike Hornbuckle added 14 point as well, while English finished with 10.

While the Cougars shot just 39% (24-for-61) from the floor, it was a notable improvement over the 23% Azusa Pacific managed in an 8-point setback at Concordia last month.

With the victory, Concordia takes the rubber-match of the series in more ways than one. The Eagles take the season series, 2-1, and with this being the third straight year that the Eagles and Cougars met in the GSAC Tourney finals, they also take that match-up 2-1.

With the victory Concordia improves to 26-8 while Azusa Pacific will take a 25-9 mark to the NAIA Championship Tournament.

Seedings and first-round parings for the NAIA Tournament will be released by the NAIA national office Wednesday (March 9) at 3 p.m. (PST).