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| Concordia is headed for the Elite 8 for the first time since 1993 after their thrilling 64-59 win over Johns Hopkins at Long Center in Scranton, PA! |
Wanted to provide an update after a LONG day of watching basketball (and I'm still not done as of this writing as I'm watching my UCLA Bruins trying to hang on against Michigan St in the B1G Tournament in Chicago).
Not that Concordia Head Coach Kim Wagers or her staff took my advice but the Cobbers definitely DID throw caution to the wind and went toe-to-toe with one of the top teams in the nation and took down Johns Hopkins 64-59. But to me what was impressive wasn't the fact that they just won but rather how they were able to take control of the game in the last few minutes when everything was hanging in the balance in a tight game against one of the best teams in the country which just happened to be 27-1 coming into this game and arguably a heavy favorite to advance to the Elite 8. And make no mistake about it - the Blue Jays made life miserable at times for the MIAC regular season champs with their full-court press that did result in 16 turnovers on this day. Yet that failed to faze Concordia when it might've worn mentally on a lot of other teams. But here's one area where the Cobbers couldn't be beat on this day - at the charity stripe going 17-18 for 94.4% - wow! Now you know why I harp on free throw shooting so much and you couldn't have done it much better than what Concordia did on this day. But wait - it gets better. The Cobbers owned the boards on this day by a 45-37 count. Well actually, I should probably say that it was Concordia's Maya Metcalf that owned the boards on this day with her 22 rebounds. I mean, she finds different ways to step up for this team in almost every outing and she did it again on this day. But here's the other item that was key for the Cobbers - balanced scoring - where you had Alexa Snesrud leading the way with 13 points and Molly Musland with 10 points but then you had Genevieve Gruba, Metcalf and Kaia Gack all finishing with nine points and that was so crucial on this day. Taya Jeffrey and Taylor Safranski each have five points and Kaitlyn Rohloff was perfect from the charity stripe as she finished with four points. And Johns Hopkins' Kendall Dunham made things dangerous for the Cobbers by burying a couple of late "3's" but again, Concordia found a way to survive and that's what it's really all about this time of year - survival. And now the Cobbers have a chance to do what many thought they'd never have - play in the Elite 8 against Scranton and I'll talk more about this game tomorrow.
Bethel meanwhile wasn't quite as fortunate on this night as they fell to Washington & Lee 75-67 in a tough battle out at Lexington, VA. I think what may haunt the Royals for a while is the knowledge that they had total control of this game at one point; leading by as many as ten in the late stages of the second period and enjoying a 35-27 lead at the halftime break. But the tide slowly turned in favor of the Generals in the midway point of the third period but to their credit, Bethel found themselves down by only one at 52-51 going into the fourth period. The Royals, in fact, would take the lead back at 55-54 at the 8:56 mark of the fourth period and they would up that to 57-54 at the 8:11 mark on a lay-up by Rosalie Penke. But it was at this particular point where things started to go south for Bethel as Washington & Lee unleashed a key 9-0 that the Royals never quite recovered from. But before I go any further, you've got to tip your hat to the Generals and specifically Mary Schluesner who was just unstoppable at times in the fourth period. When you look at the box score, there's some numbers that are going to hurt Bethel for a while. Consider: Washington & Lee owned the boards on this night by a 50-36 count (ouch) and Schluesner had 17 of those rebounds for the Generals (along with 20 points to boot for a "double double"). While the Royals did have a decided advantage in points in the paint at 44-38, Washington & Lee had an advantage in points off of turnovers at 18-9 and a big advantage in those all-important "second chance" points at 22-12 along with an advantage in bench points at 28-18 and fast break points at 19-2 which to me indicates that Bethel got worn down at the most critical juncture of this game. But you certainly can't fault Bethel for the great season they had that includes the victory in the MIAC Championship Game. Colette Duininck, Elly Schmitz, Ali Born, Jaelin Boyd, Rosalie Penke and Lexi Schermann, thank you so much for the memories.
I'll have more to say about Saturday's Elite 8 matchup between Concordia and Scranton slated for Saturday night at 6:00 PM tomorrow.
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