Made the relatively short drive over to Si Melby Hall on the campus of Augsburg University on this overcast early February day to take in this late regular season game between visiting Concordia and host Augsburg. What a great week this had been for the Cobbers so far - getting a big road win at CSB on Monday night and then taking down #4 GAC in the comfy confines of cavernous Memorial Auditorium two nights later in that titanic match-up of the top two teams in the MIAC. Still, Concordia couldn't come into this game taking anything for granted and had to be ready to roll - especially now with a much bigger target on their back. The Auggies meanwhile got a convincing road win down in Winona on Wednesday night in their victory over SMU but if they were going to get things turned around and possibly get back into the playoff mix, they were going to have to do it against a Concordia team that was starting to get hot at precisely the right time. This was also Senior Day at Augsburg as well and before the game, seniors Katie Manecke, Kalena Myers and Anja Smith were honored at midcourt to a round of applause from fans in attendance.
The Auggies would draw first blood in this contest - getting the opening tip and then sophomore forward Amira LaDuke would soon knock down a jumper from near the free throw line at the 9:43 mark to make it a 2-0 game but it soon became apparent that things were not going to go well on this Senior Day for the home team as Concordia quickly took control. Strong junior forward Makayla Anderson; enroute to another huge day on this Saturday, would connect on a short, turnaround jumper from the right side at the 9:26 mark to level the contest and a short time later, Anderson would muscle into the paint for another score to put the Cobbers up 4-2. That lead would grow to 7-2 when junior sharp-shooting guard Carlee Sieben buried a "3" from the left top area at the 8:15 mark before Augsburg could momentarily close to within a single possession on a score in the paint by Smith at the 7:58 mark but slowing down the visitors from the Fargo-Moorhead was proving to be more and more problematic. Cobber senior guard Emily Beseman would snare an offensive rebound for a putback at the 7:37 mark and another routine score in the paint by Anderson at the 7:16 mark upped Concordia's lead to 11-4. Then the Cobbers started inflicting damage from behind the arc. Beseman would unleash one bomb from the left top area at the 6:50 mark and fellow senior guard Jordyn Kahler would follow suit with a "3" from the top of the key at the 5:45 mark that now had Concordia up 17-8. Complicating the Auggies' problems was that Manecke would collect her second foul of the afternoon and Head Coach Ted Riverso wasted little time in getting the former Mounds View standout to the bench for preservation purposes. Augsburg would get the deficit trimmed down to seven points when sophomore guard Wakinyela Bear connected with a jumper from the left wing area with 4:31 left but the Cobbers were soon off to the races again. Sophomore reserve guard Molly Musland would connect on a short jumper off the glass with 4:11 left and then Sieben would would drain her second trey of the afternoon - this one coming from the top of the key with 3:23 left that got the lead to 22-10. Fellow sophomore reserve guard Taylor Safranski would knock down a pair of free throws after getting fouled with 1:09 left and then diminutive senior reserve guard Maddie Guler would bang home a "3" from the right wing area with :33.2 left and with a 27-12 lead, it was pretty easy to see that this one was going Concordia's way.
And the Cobbers showed no signs of letting up on the accelerator anytime soon once the second period got underway either. Another routine score in the paint by Anderson at the 9:37 mark and another three-point bomb by Kahler - this one from the left corner at the 9:10 mark - stretched the Concordia lead to 32-12. Then Anderson; the Bismarck, ND native not necessarily known for her three-point prowess, showed the fans inside Si Melby Hall on this day just how much her game has expanded from last year when she drilled a casually cruel "3" from the top of the key at the 8:07 mark to push the Cobber lead to 35-14. Augsburg finally found some semblance of offense as two free throws by Bear after she was fouled at the 7:48 mark and a lay-up by the speedy Myers at the 7:22 mark got the deficit down to seventeen at 35-18. Myers would follow that up with a three-point bomb from the left wing area at the 6:35 mark and sophomore reserve guard Melanie Delestrez would get one free throw to go down after getting fouled at the 6:20 left but down by a 37-22 count, the Auggies were going to need a lot more than that and Concordia was not going to be cooperative on this day. Freshman reserve forward Genevieve Gruba would bury a "3" from the right wing area at the 6:01 mark and Musland would follow suit with a bomb of her own from the left wing area at the 5:04 mark. Then lanky freshman reserve post Maci Wheeldon would connect with a lay-up with 4:20 left that made it a 45-24 ballgame and the Auggies' Riverso, seeing that his squad was facing an avalanche of maroon and gold, had no choice but to take a match to a timeout in hopes of finding some solutions to all this. But not even this stoppage in play would deter Concordia as the Cobbers reeled off an 11-0 run to finish off this second period. Safranski would knock down a jumper from the left elbow area with 2:50 left and with 2:10 left, Kahler would dart into the lane and knock down a short jumper to up the lead to 49-25. Then freshman reserve guard Alexa Snesrud got into the act as she would knock down a jumper from the right wing area with 1:36 left to make it a 51-25 lead and once again, Augsburg's Riverso would call for a halt to the action with a thirty-second timeout. But Concordia was not finished yet as Anderson would get a three-point play the old-fashioned way - with a score in the paint with :54.7 left that also drew a foul and resulted in the obligatory "and one". Safranski would add another pair of freebies after getting fouled with just :04.6 left and the Cobbers took a commanding 56-25 lead into the locker room at the half.
Augsburg started out the third period the way they started the game - with a score from LaDuke as the former Cass Lake-Bena standout knocked down a jumper from the right wing area at the 9:42 mark and Bear would drain a "3" from the right wing area at the 9:07 mark but the Auggies were going to need a lot more of that if they were going to have any hope of closing this already-sizable gap but once again, Concordia showed no interest in letting their opponent hang around. Anderson would connect with a lay-up in transition at the 8:15 mark that also drew a foul and her ensuing "and one" would have the Cobbers up 61-30. A bit later, Sieben would connect on a jumper from the right elbow area at the 7:41 mark that got the lead to 63-30 and once again, Augsburg's Riverso would be clamoring for a timeout as the bleeding was becoming massive. Bear would try and come to the Auggies rescue again as she would bury another "3" - this one from the right top area at the 7:24 mark but with such a big deficit that they were already staring at, this score would only make a small dent. And Concordia would then unleash an 11-3 burst that ballooned the lead even more. A routine lay-up by Anderson at the 7:06 mark and one free throw by junior forward Greta Tollefson after she was fouled at the 6:09 mark got the Cobber lead to 66-33. Then Beseman would unleash more terror from behind the arc with a bomb from the right wing area at the 5:11 mark and Gruba - the Enderlin, ND native, would follow suit with a bomb from the right top area with 3:17 left. Gruba would also cap this latest burst by snaring a long rebound and getting a lay-up out of it with 2:28 left that stretched the lead to 74-36. The Auggies could only take small bites out of this huge deficit down the stretch of this third period. Two free throws by Manecke after she was fouled with 2:13 left and a Manecke jumper from the left elbow area with 1:41 left cut the deficit to thirty-six at 76-40 and freshman reserve guard Jhanae Green would get in on the action as well with a "3" from the right corner with :54 left. Fellow freshman reserve guard Saylor Gallagher would finish up this otherwise dreadful third period with a drive and finish with :34.4 left but down 77-45, things were already a forgone conclusion as this contest morphed into the fourth period.
Bear would come through for Augsburg again in the early moments of the fourth period as the Morrison, CO native would drain another "3" - this one from the right corner again - at the 8:06 mark and Gallagher would connect with a lay-up at the 7:29 mark. Smith, in her last appearance at Si Melby Hall, would connect with a short jumper off the glass at the 7:02 mark and would also get a score in the paint at the 6:19 mark. But with the Cobbers already up by a prohibitive margin, Head Coach Kim Wagers took out her main chain gang and let the reserves take care of clean-up duty on this day. That did offer the Auggies an opportunity to cut into this sizable deficit a bit more. Myers would drain a "3" with 4:51 left that cut the deficit to twenty-five at 82-57 and two free throws by Delestrez after she was fouled with 4:18 left and one more by Smith before she came out for good with 3:19 left had the deficit down to twenty-two at 82-60. But some of the Concordia reserves got their moment in the sun coming down the stretch as well. Freshman reserve guard Olivia Hanson would bang home a "3" from the right wing area with 3:05 left and sophomore reserve forward Leah Lenz would get one free throw to go down after getting fouled with 2:45 left. A bit later, Hanson would strike again as she would snare a steal and race the other way for a lay-up with 2:20 left and Wheeldon would connect on a short, turnaround jumper with 1:41 left. The Auggies would get the last points on this day as Bear would drop another "3" from the left top area with 1:22 left and Green would get one free throw to go down after getting fouled with 1:00 left. Bear would end this day with one last three-point bomb - this one from the top of the key with :20.3 left but that wouldn't be nearly enough as Concordia bagged a convincing 90-69 victory.
I was able to catch up with Concordia Assistant Coach Terry Porter afterward and I asked him straight up about what the difference was with this team after the debacle a couple of weekends ago over at Hutton Arena against Hamline. "We have to understand that when we go on the road, we HAVE to be ready to go." He added that it didn't matter if you were playing the last-place team in the conference either - if you weren't ready to go, you're going to get knocked off. And I think one of the big things that I saw today from Concordia - without question - was that sense of urgency. That was one thing I was a little worried about coming into this game after the big win they had Wednesday night at home against GAC - would there be any letdown? They answered that question quickly and decisively. When I was able to catch up with Wagers, she pretty much reiterated the same thing and added that they weren't totally healthy against Hamline a couple of weekends ago but they can't use that as an excuse either. Aside from the sense of urgency that I saw from the Cobbers on this day, there's a couple of other things that I have to point out behind this latest resurgence. First, Anderson has been able to expand and grow her game over last season. She seems so much quicker and stronger than she was from a year ago and she was absolutely dominant down low today as Augsburg had no answer for her whatsoever. And who would have ever thought that Anderson could be a threat when she's up on the high post position? Yet there she was in the first half, burying a "3". Not that Wagers or her staff want to see her trying to make a living off of that but the ability is there nonetheless that makes her an even bigger problem for opponents. Second, unlike last season, the Cobbers now finally have built and developed some nice depth off the bench and now you see players like Guler, Gruba, Snesrud, Safranski, Musland and Wheeldon all providing valuable minutes of good, solid play off the bench. Musland can be an assassin from behind the arc and Gruba can utilize her size to grab those tough rebounds and has the ability to hit the "3" as well. The really cool thing for the Cobbers is that you see all of these elements coming together at precisely the right time and that's why this team's stock has suddenly soared.
In a game like this, the box score only tells so much but there were still three stats that still stand out nonetheless. The Cobbers easily owned the paint on this day as they enjoyed a whopping 32-16 edge in points in the paint (thanks largely in part to Anderson) and they had 21 points off of turnovers as well. Then you have bench points where Concordia had a whopping 42-13 advantage and you get an idea of what this game was like. Throw in the fact that the Cobbers were 33-61 from FG range for 54.1% and 12-21 from downtown for 57.1% and again, you get an idea of how Concordia dominated. If there's one stat that had to irk Wagers and her staff, it's that the Cobbers were only 12-18 from the charity stripe for 66.7% and for a team that has free throw shooting as one of its hallmark strengths, this was a bit of a setback. But that can be worked on. Meanwhile for Augsburg, it was obviously not how you wanted to close out the home careers of three great seniors like Smith, Myers and Mannecke; the last connections to the very good Augsburg team from two years ago that lost in the MIAC Championship Game and was robbed yet again of an NCAA Tournament berth. You look at this roster and the plain fact of the matter is that Riverso and his staff have an incredibly young team that's dominated by freshmen and sophomores (much like Bethel in many ways) and you've got to plant the seed and let it grow. Can Riverso get this young group to where this program was a few seasons ago? Only time will tell.
It was indeed a fabulous day for Concordia's Anderson as she led the way with 19 points and Beseman had a solid day as well with 12 points. What's surprising is that for Augsburg (and perhaps in an encouraging way) is that it was Bear finishing with 19 points as well to pace the Auggies and she was 5-9 from downtown, too. Smith closed out her fabulous career at Si Melby Hall with 16 points and Myers would add 10 points.
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