Men’s basketball routed by Baker in round two of the national tournament
Senior forward Noah Schutte (12) prepares to take the ball into the paint (photo from previous game).
Photo credit: Maddy Peters
By Maddy Peters
Concordia men’s basketball ended their season with an 80-65 loss to the Baker University Wildcats in the second round of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics championship tournament in Baldwin City, Kan. Saturday evening.
The Bulldogs faced a rough and tumble defense from the Wildcats who were quite effective at muzzling senior Tristan Smith in the paint. Smith, the Great Plains Athletic Conference player of the year and defensive player of the year was restricted to 13 points and was fouled out towards the end of the second half.
Baker came out hot in the first half with a stifling defense that kept Smith to seven points and three turnovers. Meanwhile, the Wildcats were shooting 20-32 on the field and 6-13 from the three in the first half. Wildcat Ty Henry made half of Baker’s 3-pointers in the half.
Concordia was shoved into a tough rut as Baker’s offensive side took off without a response from the Bulldogs. The Wildcats launched ahead in the first half with a 12-0 run to take a double digit lead. Concordia closed the gap back to single digits before getting hit with a 15-0 Baker run. The Bulldogs ended the half down by 22 at 48-26.
The second half started out rough for the Bulldogs with Smith picking up a personal and a technical foul less than two minutes into the game to put him at four fouls. Smith was attempting to grab a rebound and shoved a Wildcat off of him in the process. The cause of the technical was unclear, but the referee awarded one nonetheless after Smith passed the ball to him.
Senior Noah Schutte took charge on the offensive charge as Smith was benched. Schutte put up nine points before coach Ben Limback opted to put Smith back in the game. He would put up three more points before fouling out.
Smith’s physicality brought more life into the Bulldog offense who cut the Baker lead down to 10 with five and a half minutes left in the game. However, the Wildcats took the wind out of Concordia’s sails and went on a 12-1 run to bring the lead back towards 20 points with two minutes to go.
The team shot a poor 19-57 from the field against Baker. Smith shot an unusually low 4-9 from the field. Schutte was the main person going to the basket going 8-17 from the field and 3-5 from beyond the arc. Concordia only gained 22 points from 2-pointers and were kept alive by the 19 free throws they made off 27 attempts.
Schutte was the team leader in points with 26 and achieved a double-double with 10 rebounds. Smith put up the aforementioned 13 points and still made a double-double with 10 rebounds as well. Smith was also the team leader in assists with three.
With this, Concordia ends their men’s basketball season at 26-7. Program legends Schutte and Smith also ended their storied NAIA careers in the rear view alongside Bradley Bennett, known for his 3-pointers, and Brayson Mueller who picked up 10 minutes for three points in the final game.
Schutte ended his five-year tenure as the all-time scorer for Concordia at 2,340 points and all-time rebounder at 948. He had 513 points and 221 rebounds on the season as well. He had 73 assists on the season to equal 268 career assists to take the 15th slot on the all-time list.
Smith meanwhile took the single points in a game record with 48 scored against Midland in the GPAC Quarterfinal game. He had 677 points and 283 rebounds on the season to take the season points record and put himself at fourth on the season rebounds list. He has a career total of 1,577 points good for 11th on the all-time list, 755 career rebounds good for sixth and 135 career blocks good for fifth.
