Junior post Reed Sallstrom came off the bench to score a career high 11 points and help the Gustavus men’s basketball team to a 67-56 win over Concordia on Saturday afternoon at Gus Young Court in St. Peter, Minn. The Gusties improved to 4-2 overall and 2-0 in MIAC play.
In the first half, Gustavus used a balanced offensive attack to methodically build a double-digit lead at 19-9 at the 10:00 mark. The Gusties took an eight-point 35-27 lead into the locker room at the break. Eight different players scored four points or more for Gustavus in the first half. James Hill, Paul Blacklock, and Blake Shay led the way with six points each.
In the second half, Gustavus maintained an 8-t0-10 point lead through the first 10 minutes of play and led 50-36 with 9:56 left in the contest. The Gusties took its biggest lead of the game at 15 points (58-43) on a basket by Ben Biewen at the 6:47 mark. The Cobbers, however would respond with a 11-0 run over the next four minutes and cut the lead to four at 58-54 on a basket by John Molina with 2:43 left to play. The Gusties Tyler Grey would stop the run with a basket at the 2:21 mark and Gustavus would out-score Concordia 7-2 in the final two minutes to claim the 11-point victory (67-56).
The Gusties were led in scoring by the trio of Dan Schmidtknecht with 12, Reed Sallstrom with 11, and Seth Anderson with 10. Darrin Olmscheid of Concordia led all scorers with 15 points.
Gustavus extended its win streak over Concordia at Gus Young Court to 14 games dating back to the 1996-97 season.
The Gusties will host St. Olaf on Monday at 7:30 pm and then travel to Macalester on Wednesday.