Kelsey Thomas extends towards the basket. (Photo courtesy of CJ Siewert)
ST. PETER, Minn. – The Gustavus men’s basketball team bounced back from three consecutive losses with a 62-52 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory over Concordia College Saturday afternoon at Gus Young Court, paced by a strong second half and solid defensive effort.
After a rough shooting performance from both squads in the first 20 minutes, the Gusties, now 7-5 overall and 5-2 during MIAC play, improved their field goal percentage from 32.3 percent in the first half to 46.4 percent in the second half while playing stingy defense in the win. Gustavus out-rebounded Concordia 35-32 and outscored the Cobbers 13-4 in points off turnovers.
“I thought our defense was pretty good throughout the game,” said Head Coach Mark Hanson. “I think there was a combination of defending and not giving up second-chance shots and we just had more shots.”
While shooting 10-for-31 and just 1-10 from beyond the arc in the first half, the Black and Gold limited the visitors to 6-20 shooting from the field as they owned a 21-19 lead into the intermission.
Despite the Cobbers shooting well at 50 percent from the field in the second half, the Gusties forced nine Concordia turnovers in the second frame.CJ Woda (Fy., Maple Grove, Minn.) gave Gustavus a 33-31 lead at the 12:56 minute mark and the Gusties held on to the lead throughout. Gustavus gained its largest lead at 12 points (51-39) from a Spencer Tollefson (Jr., New Richland, Minn.) layup with 5:56 remaining in the game.
“At times we become a little stagnant and don’t make the extra pass,” Hanson commented on the team’s offensive play. “That is something we are working on and don’t have many three or four-year players, so we’ve got guys that are still learning to play together and hopefully a game like this feeds that.”
Kelsey Thomas (Sr., Wiesbaden, Germany) led the Gusties with 16 points, shooting 4-9 from the field and 7-8 from the charity stripe, while Jason Faul (Sr., Prior Lake, Minn.) followed with 12 points, going 5-10 from the field.
Gustavus returns to action on Monday evening at Macalester College.