Men’s Basketball Takes Care of Concordia Ann Arbor at CIT
by Jacy Johnston
The Concordia men’s basketball team is headed to the championship after a second half runaway to defeat Concordia Ann Arbor 85-65 in the opening round of play at the Concordia Invitational Tournament.
“It was a fun game, and I feel like the guys really came together in the second half and had a lot of momentum plays there,” said coach Ben Limback.
The Bulldogs started the game with a 10-5 lead due to junior Eli Ziegler’s back-to-back 3-pointers. Concordia Ann Arbor did not give up though and continued to hang in the game with the Bulldogs. With eight minutes to play, the Bulldogs led 18-14. The Bulldogs stormed out with offensive momentum and gained a 10-point lead. At the half, the Bulldogs lead 36 to 28 over Concordia Ann Arbor.
“I thought we did a lot of dumb things in the first half and had a lot of careless turnovers, but I thought we settled into the environment in the second half and our crowd was awesome and kept us going,” said Limback.
Despite a quick Ann Arbor run, the Bulldogs pulled away under the direction of junior Chandler Folkerts. With 10 minutes left in play, the Bulldogs led 58-46. The Bulldogs continued to run away with the lead and were able to give playing time to a variety of players. The Bulldogs finished the victory 85-65.
“I thought Rudy [Knight] gave us a good spark in the second half and Micah [Kohlwey] came back in at the end and really started some hustle plays,” said Limback. “Chandler [Folkerts] was just a man on the boards and on the offensive end.”
Folkerts tallied 21 points and 11 rebounds for the Bulldogs and senior Jamie Pearson chipped in 18 points. Senior Robby Thomas added another 14 points, and in addition, Thomas broke the school’s all-time blocks record during the game. Junior Eli Ziegler scored 10 points as well to contribute to the scorebook.
“Tomorrow we can’t foul as much—we have to wall up better and play smarter,” Limback said.
The Bulldogs will play Saturday, Jan. 30 in the CIT championship game against Concordia Wisconsin at 7:15 p.m. in Chicago.
