Concordia vs Augsburg 12-8-18

Was over at Si Melby Hall on the campus of Augsburg University on this early December Saturday to take in the first Saturday of the new MIAC season that pitted visiting Concordia which made its way down U.S. Highway 10 and the BNSF's Staples Sub mainline to the Twin Cities to take on host Augsburg.  I was anxious to catch the Cobbers in action on this day to get a look at them and this is an incredibly young roster that Head Coach Jessica Rahman has that is dominated by freshmen and sophomores with only two seniors.  Augsburg was coming in with a solid 7-1 record and a 2-0 record in conference play while the Cobbers were sporting a so-so 3-3 overall record and 1-1 in conference play.

Concordia would actually draw first blood in this contest when senior post Kirstin Simmons connected with a lay-up at the 7:53 mark of the opening period but the Auggies would soon embark on a 14-2 run to grab control of things.  Senior guard and former Park Center standout Camille McCoy got the run going at the 7:44 mark with her lay-up in transition and an opportunistic steal and lay-up the other way by junior guard Kaezha Wubben at the 7:26 mark had Augsburg up 4-2.  Then fellow junior guard Tamira McLemore made a hard drive into the lane and finished off the glass at the 6:38 mark to make it an 6-2 game.  Wubben repeated her earlier feat at the 6:14 mark and with 3:29 left, junior forward Camryn Speese got into the paint for a score and drew a foul in the process and her ensuing "and one" now had the Auggies up 11-4.  When junior reserve guard Aiza Wilson drained a "3" from the left top area with 2:52 left, Augsburg was now up 14-4 and the Cobbers' Rahman now had no choice but to call for a thirty-second timeout to try and make some quick adjustments.  Concordia managed to briefly climb back into single-digit range when freshman reserve forward Mary Sem got into the paint for a score with 2:09 left but Augsburg was clicking on all cylinders in the early going and ended the first period on a 6-2 burst thanks to Wilson and her three-point prowess.  She first found the range again from behind the arc - this time from the left wing area off of an inbounds pass - with 1:07 left and with :16 left she got another look from the left top area and casually drained her third trey of the afternoon for a 22-6 Auggie lead.  The Cobbers got a bit of a respite when sophomore guard Amber Lingen got to the charity stripe with :02.1 left where she got both attempts to go down but already Concordia was in a big hole down 22-8.

Despite their undeniable youth, I've never seen a Jessica Rahman-coached team ever pack up their tent and go belly-up and to their credit, the Cobbers made some inroads on this deficit in the opening minutes of the second period.  Junior forward Mira Ellefson's lay-up at the 8:58 mark sparked a 7-0 Concordia burst.  Ellefson would follow that up with a jumper along the left baseline off of an inbounds pass at the 8:27 mark and a "3" from the left corner by freshman reserve guard Autumn Thompson at the 7:54 mark suddenly had the deficit cut down to seven points at 22-15.  Perhaps somewhat alarmed by this latest development, the Auggies responded with an 8-0 run of their own to build up that safety net again.  Wubben connected with a lay-up in transition after a steal at the 7:21 mark and Speese did the same at the 7:04 mark to get the lead back up to double digits at 26-15.  Wubben would get one free throw to go down at the 6:39 mark after getting fouled and then McLemore would unleash a three-point bomb from the right corner off of an inbounds pass at the 6:27 mark that had Augsburg up 30-18.  Cobber sophomore guard Rachel Hoernemann single-handedly got her team back in single-digit range again - albeit briefly - as she connected with a lay-up in transition at the 5:41 mark and followed that up with a lay-up that drew a foul that also resulted in the obligatory free throw and now Concordia was down by only eight at 31-23 right at the 5:00 mark.  The thing of it was, however, that the Cobbers could never sustain a long-term push that would have had them right back in the thick of things and Augsburg always seemed to have more answers.  Auggie senior reserve forward Carlee Kobow's score in the paint with 4:24 left sparked another Augsburg burst.  Speedy junior guard Ari Jones got into the act as well with back-to-back three-point bombs - one from the left wing area with 3:58 left and another from the left top area with 3:13 left - to give the Auggies a 39-23 lead.  McCoy would also have back-to-back scores down the stretch as well.  She first knocked down a short jumper off the glass with 2:42 left and followed that up with an offensive rebound for a putback with 1:20 left that bulged the lead to eighteen at 43-25.  Wilson would bang home her fourth trey of this game with a bomb from the right corner with :50 left and one McLemore freebie with :07.4 left gave Augsburg a seemingly commanding twenty-point 47-27 advantage as both teams retreated to the locker room for the halftime intermission.  A check of the first half box score reveals it was pretty much all Augsburg for the first 20 minutes as the Auggies shot 18-35 from FG range for 51.4% and were 7-16 from behind the arc for 43.8%.  Concordia's Rahman and her staff likely could only wince when they looked that the numbers they produced thus far - 11-31 from FG range for 35.5% and 2-9 from three-point land for a paltry 22.2%.  Throw in 13 first half turnovers as well and things were looking pretty dismal for the vistors from Moorhead.

The Cobbers tried desperately to get back into the thick of things once the third period got underway.  Senior guard Grace Wolhowe's lay-up at the 9:19 mark and one Hoernemann free throw at the 8:47 mark cut the deficit down to nineteen points at 49-30.  Wolhowe would strike again at the 8:28 mark with another lay-up and one free throw by Ellefson at the 8:04 mark now had the deficit down to sixteen points at 49-33 and offered up a bit of hope for Concordia.  But the Auggies had no intention of letting their opponent hang around on this day and a Speese score in the paint at the 7:47 mark sparked a 10-0 Augsburg run.  Wubben unleashed a "3" from the right corner at the 7:14 mark to make it a 54-33 game and then McLemore made a hard drive and finish at the 7:01 mark that also drew a foul and her ensuing "and one" pushed Augsburg's lead to 57-33.  Wubben's steal and lay-up the other way at the 6:19 mark capped this run beofre the Cobbers could begin the arduous task of trying to play catch-up again.  Ellefson banged home a "3" from the right top area at the 5:56 mark and a short, turnaround jumper by sophomore reserve forward Elizabeth Birkemeyer at the 5:25 mark had the deficit down to twenty-one at 59-38.  One free throw by freshman reserve guard Autumn Thompson with 4:47 left and a jumper from the left wing area with 3:51 left by freshman reserve forward Bailee Larson had the deficit down to eighteen points at 59-41 but again it was a matter of putting together a sustained run that would seriously cut into this cushion and Concordia simply wasn't able to do that on this day.  Two scores by the Auggies' Wubben - a lay-up with 3:30 left and a lay-up in transition after a steal with 3:14 left - had Augsburg up 63-41 and a "3" from the left wing area by the sharp-shooting Wilson with 2:04 left pushed that lead to 66-43.  Two free throws by sophomore reserve forward Jazmyn Solseth with :54.3 left in the third period and a jumper from the left wing area by freshman reserve guard Selena Lor with just :02 left had Augsburg in great shape up 70-49 heading into the fourth and final period. 

.Ellefson tried to help her Cobber team get off on solid footing in the early moments of the fourth period with her lay-up at the 9:29 mark but it was just too much quickness, speed and athleticism from Augsburg on this day.  One Wilson free throw at the 8:59 mark maintained the twenty-point cushion at 71-51 and two scores by Speese - a lay-up in transition at the 8:30 mark and a lay-up at the 7:40 mark - pushed the Auggie lead to 75-51.  Lor would add to Augsburg's lead with a lay-up at the 6:45 mark with a lay-up before Concordia could try and cut into this sizable cushion again.  Simmons got into the paint for a score at the 6:25 mark and a "3" from the left wing area by Thompson at the 5:39 mark coupled with a Sem lay-up with 4:33 left along with a steal in the backcourt and subsequent lay-up by freshman reserve forward Anna Rinke with 4:18 left had the deficit down to nineteen at 79-60 but any hopes of catching the Auggies had long flown out the window by now.  And the good thing for Augsburg by now was that Head Coach Ted Riverso was getting more of his bench players involved as well.  Junior reserve forward Abby Jordan knocked down two free throws after getting fouled with 3:20 left and got one more to go down with 2:48 left after getting sent to the charity stripe again.  Jordan also showed her three-point prowess when she drained a bomb from the left wing area with 2:08 left to get the Auggie lead to 85-61.  Sophomore reserve forward Pashia Scott got into the paint for a score with 1:44 left and two more Jordan free throws with 1:27 left had Augsburg up 89-61.  The Cobbers would get two more late scores - a "3" from the right top area by freshman reserve forward Taviahna Tanin with 1:16 left and one free throw by Sem with :33.8 left but the Auggies' Jordan would cap this day (and a solid fourth period for her) with two more insurance free throws with :20.3 left as Augsburg waltzed to a 91-65 triumph. 

I managed to catch up with Concorida Assistant Coach and former Cobber great Olivia "Dibs" Johnson afterward and although disappointed with the outcome on this day, she's enthusiastically trying to help build up this young core of Cobber players in hopes of getting Concordia back to the glory days of when they were regularly competing for MIAC titles and NCAA Tournament appearances and I think Rahman made a wise choice of getting her on the staff to help.  There's a lot of good young talent on this team and although it's realistically going to take 1-2 years before this young group can really start to make an impact, I think the Cobbers are on the right track but the Cobber faithful have to be patient with this young team.  Perhaps the one big positive that Rahman and her staff can take from this setback on this day is that they did have the edge on the boards in this game by a 38-36 count.  But no doubt the Cobbers will have to clean things up in the turnover department going forward from this one as they were guilty of 24 boo-boos on this day.  Simply a fabulous day for the Auggies as they had FIVE players in double figures scoring-wise.  Wubben's 18 points led all scorers on this day and Wilson was right behind with 16 points and was 5-8 from downtown.  Speese added 12 points and McLemore had a "double-double" of 11 points and 10 rebounds.  Jordan's solid fourth period netted 10 points as well for the Auggies.  Ellefson was the only Cobber play in double figures for scoring with her 10 points.  Two other interesting stats to throw out from this game:  Both teams did well scoring in the paint as Concordia had 34 points and Augsburg had 36 points close in.  Also, both benches were heavily involved in the scoring as Concordia's bench produced 32 points and Augsburg's bench produced 38 points.