SAINT PETER, Minn. – The Gustavus men’s basketball team Saturday hosted its final contest before break and took down Concordia 76-59. With the win the Gusties improve to 3-5 overall and 3-2 in the MIAC while the Cobbers fall to 2-7 overall and 0-5 in the MIAC.
“I think the biggest thing today was that we made everything difficult for them on the offensive end,” said Head Coach Mark Hanson. “So to see that kind of defense today was really important for us. We didn’t shoot it all that well tonight but we made them work very hard on the defensive end. I thought we took care of the ball and took a lot of good shots, but we still made a few choices here and there that we prefer to see otherwise.”
The two teams got off to a slow start, with the Gusties jumping out to a 6-2 lead 3:16 into the contest following a Logan Rezac (Jr., Andover) layup. Gustavus would maintain its lead but didn’t make a big push until, with just over eight minutes remaining, PeterLunquist (Jr., Rochester) knocked down a step-back three and then a hook shot in the pain on consecutive possessions to push the Gustie lead to 10 at 27-17 and force a Concordia timeout.
Isaac Douglas (Jr., Montevideo) would knock down a triple on Gustavus’s next possession after the Cobber timeout but Concordia would cut the lead down to eight after scoring on three straight possessions. Gustavus would extend its lead to 13 twice more, but Concordia responded each time, the last getting a jumper followed by an and-one layup to cut it to 44-36 heading to the half.
The beginning of the second half saw Concordia jump right back into things. After Gustavus opened the frame with a basket, the Cobbers scored five straight to bring the score to 46-41, but that’s all the close they would get, as the Gusties started to open up their lead. With the Gusties leading by six, three pointers on consecutive possession by Lundquist pushed the Gusties up 55-43. The Cobbers would bring it back to an eight point deficit, but the Gusties used a 16-4 run to all but put the game away. With the Gusties leading 71-51 with 5:18 remaining, the Cobbers would outscore Gustavus 8-5 to bring the final 76-59.
Lundquist led all scorers for the Gusties with 15, while Rezac added 12. Nolan Malo (So., Owatonna), Benji Lundberg (So., Ellendale), and Isaac Douglas all finished with 10. Jake Guse (So., Waseca) had a strong presence inside in the game, scoring six points, and posting team-highs with eight rebounds and five blocks. Guse’s five blocks are the most by a Gustie since Paul Blacklock notched six versus Hamline on Feb. 2, 2011.
The Gusties will be off until after Christmas break now, before they head to California for a pair of contests on December 29 and 31.