ST. PAUL, Minn. - Concordia University (9-5, 6-4 NSIC) was led by 56 points from juniors Brent Barz (Johnston, Iowa), Peter and Kenny Olafeso (St. Paul, Minn.) as the Golden Bears came away with a 77-64 win over Minnesota Duluth (7-7, 5-5 NSIC) on Friday night at Gangelhoff Center. Barz led all scorers with 22 points on 11-14 shooting as Concordia led by as many as 21 points in the victory.
BOX SCORE
Barz also collected nine rebounds with five coming on the offensive glass while Kenny Olafeso had a double-double with 15 points and a team season-high 15 rebounds with six offensive boards. The 11 combined offensive rebounds between the two players helped Concordia amass 21 second chance points and helped them accumulate a 44-22 advantage in the paint for the game.
Peter Olafeso added 19 points and three assists, hitting eight of his 10 free throw attempts. The three players played 30 (Barz), 34 (Peter) and 33 (Kenny) minutes to lead the team.
Concordia jumped out to a 41-23 halftime lead but the game was tight for the first 14 minutes. With a 20-17 lead after UMD's Jake Hottenstine hit a jump shot for the Bulldogs, Concordia answered when K.Olafeso converted a layup 20 seconds later.
That opened up a run that allowed Concordia to out score UMD 21-6 in the final six minutes of the half capped by a tip-in by Barz at the buzzer on a missed three-pointer by senior Courtney Tyler (Eagan, Minn.).
At the break, Concordia was dominant in all of the scoring breakdowns, but especially down low. In the paint, Concordia held a 24-6 first half scoring advantage and a 17-3 margin on second chances. Their bench also had a 12-1 edge and they were able to do some running with 10-2 scoring on the fast break.
They also turned six first half UMD turnovers into eight points, while committing just three turnovers themselves. The CU defense held UMD to 34.5% (10-29) first half shooting while the offense converted at a 45.9% (17-37) clip. Concordia pulled down 26 first half rebounds as well.
In the second half, UMD finally trimmed the margin down to 13 points with just under 15 minutes to play on a Hottenstine three-pointer cutting the score to 51-38. But Concordia pushed the lead to a game-high 21 points nearing the halfway mark of the half, a 62-41 lead off a P.Olafeso jumper.
UMD would cut the deficit back to 13 points just a few minutes later, and had it down to 12 points (64-52) at 5:48 to play but would never come any closer. It helped that Concordia made seven of their last 10 free throws on a night where they made just 15 of 30 as a team.
The Bulldogs were led by 18 points on 8-14 shooting by Dylan Rodriguez while Dan Kornbaum had a double-double with 13 points, 12 rebounds and had four first half blocked shots. Seven of his 12 rebounds were on the offensive end as well.
The Golden Bear defense did a nice job bottling up UMD leading scorers Ryan Rasmussen and Jake Hottenstine. Coming into the game, Rasmussen was averaging over 18 points per game while Hottenstine was second on the team with 13-plus points per outing. Tonight, while Rasmussen ended up near his average with 16 points, a chunk of those came late and he shot just 6 of 16 from the field. Hottenstine was just 3-11 from the floor for nine points.
Concordia's bench was led by Tyler with nine points while senior Dan Vandervieren (Eden Prairie, Minn.) added seven rebounds, three assists and two blocks as well. He also finished with three points, his only bucket of the evening coming on a thundering two-handed dunk in the second half. He also assisted Barz on a second half fast break dunk on a full court pass off a rebound.
The Golden Bears, having picked up a big victory over the Bulldogs to break a fifth place tie in the standings, face another critical mid-season game tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m. when they host Bemidji State (4-6 NSIC). The Beavers lost in overtime at St. Cloud State (6-4 NSIC) tonight.
Concordia and St. Cloud State are in a three-way tie for fourth in the standings with Augustana, who is at Wayne State (5-5 NSIC) tomorrow evening. The three teams are just a half game behind the University of Mary (7-4 NSIC) for third.
