Women’s basketball defeats Concordia Wisconsin at Concordia Invitational Tournament

Photo description: Junior Sadie Powell runs down the court next to an opponent and junior Taysha Rushton

Photo credit: Courtney Wright (photo from previous game)

Cohen Carpenter

Sower Staff

Two days into CIT, the Concordia Bulldogs are tournament champions in Mequon, Wisconsin, handing the home team a 78-48 defeat on Saturday night. The victory makes nine straight years the women’s team has been marked champion.

Echoes of the previous close matchup against Concordia Ann Arbor rang throughout the first quarter. Through ten minutes of play, the No. 8-ranked Bulldogs found themselves tied against a Concordia Wisconsin squad that has struggled to maintain a .500 record this season.

In close games past, the story had been a familiar one for Bulldog fans. Concordia usually struggled with a middling opponent in the first two frames of the game, many times even giving up the lead. Concordia always seems to bounce back after halftime however, scoring a majority of their season points in the third frame of the game. All goes well and the Bulldogs have the lead going into the fourth and are able to maintain until the final whistle.

Concordia didn’t seem keen on keeping to this script Saturday night, as the second quarter went more than swimmingly for the Bulldogs. The Falcons found themselves almost doubled up in the second quarter, surrendering the tie and the lead after the Bulldogs scored 26 of the next 35 points. Going into the third quarter, the Bulldogs had a sizable advantage on the scoreboard: 40-28.

The key throughout this time, and indeed, the rest of the game, was the Bulldogs’ stifling defense. While much is made of the Concordia offense, the defense often carries the team to close games and in Saturday’s case, victories.

The Bulldogs only shot 39 percent from the field and 32 percent from three-point land. Comparing this to the Falcons, who shot 41.7 percent from downtown, the final score might seem confusing to an observer in a vacuum. The real key to the game was the number behind those percentages. Concordia Nebraska shot the ball 77 times, while the Falcons only managed 46 shots. Same story with the three-balls: 34 and 12 attempts, respectively.

Facilitating this volume of shots was the Concordia defense. Thirty-two turnovers was the final tally for the Bulldogs. Off of those turnovers, the Nebraskans scored 36 points. Compared to the Wisconsinites’ totals of 14 turnovers leading to six points, it is clear who held the defensive advantage.

All of the aforementioned led to the Bulldogs cruising through the second half, outscoring the Falcons 15-13 and 23-7 in the third and fourth quarters respectively.

Individually, there was an uncommon face on top of the Concordia scoring as junior guard Kendal Brigham dropped 14 on 5-9 shooting with three rebounds and four assists. Junior Taysha Rushton and freshman Sammy Leu also joined Brigham with double digits. The duo both scored 10 with a combined eight rebounds and five assists.

In total, there were 11 Bulldogs who notched a tally on the scoreboard, as the game was well out of hand by the final frame.

Going 2-0 in the CIT, the Bulldogs will resume Great Plains Athletic Conference competition in Sioux City, Iowa on Jan. 31 against the Morningside Mustangs. Tip off will be at 6 p.m.