 |
| Scranton was simply too good on this Saturday night as they took down Concordia to advance to the Final Four. |
Had to take some time on this Saturday night with the Blizzard of the Century (?) aka Winter Storm Iona bearing down on Minnesota and the Twin Cities. So, as you know by now, Concordia fell to a great Scranton team tonight at Long Center as the Royals punched their ticket to the Final Four with a resounding 67-42 win. It was fairly easy to see from the get-go that it was going to be hard (if not difficult) for the Cobbers to match up with this team as Scranton possesses not only length but great speed and quickness to go with it. It was just very hard for the Cobbers to do much in their halfcourt offensive sets and equally difficult to work the ball down low as the Royals denied the entry pass on so many different occasions on this night. You'll recall that I said earlier today that Concordia's margin for error in this one was razor-thin (if that) and Scranton pounced on every error that the Cobbers made in this game.
Still, I give the Cobbers a ton of credit for hanging in there and actually making things interesting in the third period. Down 38-21 at the half, they cut the deficit down to fourteen down 49-35 with about a minute left in the third period but the Royals quickly closed the door for good as the fourth period progressed. Ultimately, you just have to tip your hat to Scranton. Their defense is just stellar and there's a reason that their defense was not only tops in the Landmark Conference but also ranked best in the nation in DIII women's basketball as well. And their national semifinal game with NYU this next Thursday night in Salem, VA could easily be the game of the year. There wasn't much to cheer about from a Concordia standpoint on this night other than the fact that they were outrebounded by just one at 27-26 and they had the edge in bench points at 18-11. Other than that, it was kind of on the ugly side with Scranton having a whopping edge in points in the paint at 36-16 and the Cobbers suffering 20 turnovers on this night and Scranton cashing in at the bank for 21 points off of those turnovers. And Concordia had to endure a rough night at the office from a shooting standpoint going 13-38 for 34.2% from FG range and 2-11 from downtown for 18.2%. Look, the bottom line is that they just ran into a great team tonight and guess what? That happens all the time in the NCAA Tournament and this Scranton team just might be the group that takes down mighty NYU this next Thursday night and winds up winning the whole damn thing. They're definitely good enough. Meanwhile for Concordia, finishing the year at 26-5 that includes a MIAC regular season championship and making a run to the Elite 8 and knocking off some very, very good teams in the process certainly isn't something to stick your head in the oven about (a saying my dear departed father used with me all the time 😅). This team and program can be awfully proud of what they accomplished this season and now the bar has been set even higher for Concordia which is even better. But I obviously wouldn't be doing my due diligence if I didn't praise this great senior group for the Cobbers and everything that they've achieved and done for this program. Molly Musland, Taylor Safranski, Taya Jeffrey and Leah Lenz, thank you so much for the memories.
I was also able to watch the Minnesota Girls Basketball Championship games on TV today as well (I only got to attend on Thursday night this week) and there were some very good games played (especially the Class AAAA game between Rosemount and Hopkins). I'll need a few days to digest everything that's transpired over these last few weeks (and maybe a few cold ones tonight too) and get some much-needed things caught up on my end as well but I'll have more thoughts on everything soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment