Concordia Men’s Basketball Rallies by No. 8 Bellevue

by Garrett Suchanek

The Concordia men’s basketball rallied from a 14-point deficit with 10 minutes to go to upset No. 8 Bellevue in Walz Arena 97-96 on Nov. 6 to improve to 2-0 on the year.

The Bulldogs trailed 74-60 with 9:31 left in the game. It was at this point that the Bulldogs made their run.

Concordia went on a 13-2 run over the next four minutes that was sparked by a pair of 3-pointers by senior Jamie Pearson.

However, the Bruins wouldn’t give in to the surging Bulldogs and responded with timely baskets down the stretch.

With 52 seconds left, the Bruins held an 86-82 after a bucket by Marquis Aaron.

After a missed 3-pointer by Concordia, the Bruins called a timeout and on the following inbounds pass, they threw it away.

Concordia’s senior Robby Thomas stole the ball, laid in a 2-pointer and was fouled. Thomas made the free throw to cut the deficit to 86-85.

After a foul, the Bruins went one for two from the free throw line, and on the following possession, Pearson tied the game with an acrobatic jumper off the glass. This sent the game to overtime tied at 87.

In overtime, it was back and forth between both teams, but the Bruins managed to hold a four-point lead with 2:08 to go.

Concordia’s Pearson nailed a 3-pointer to cut the Bruin lead to 96-95 with 1:41 left. Pearson wasn’t done yet, though. With five seconds left, Pearson drove to the hoop, floated a shot and got the shooter’s roll to give the Bulldogs a 97-96 lead.

Bellevue had one chance to win to the game, but the Bruins failed to get a shot off after an errant pass went by a Bruin player as the horn sounded.

Pearson led the Bulldogs with with 37 points. Juniors Chandler Folkerts and Robby Thomas also finished with double digits in points as they chipped in 26 and 12 points respectively.

Concordia will look to stay unbeaten on Saturday, Nov. 7 as the Bulldogs play Mayville State at 3 p.m. in Walz Arena.