First And Last Regular-Season Road Game
Rich Glas' first and last road regular-season road games of his college coaching career were at Bethel.
ARDEN HILLS, Minn. (2/15/17) --- Forty-seven years ago Concordia head coach Rich Glas paced the sidelines of Robertson Gym on the campus of Bethel University as a young, aspiring 25-year-old coach in his first game with Minn.-Morris.
Fast forward nearly half a century later, and he and the Cobbers stood in that same gym in Glas' final regular-season road game as a head coach.
The results weren't the same as his first time in the gym as Concordia dropped an 81-68 decision to Bethel – despite a career-high 33 points from senior point guard Dylan Alderman.
The Royals got to the rim consistently throughout the night and scored 46 of their 81 points in the paint.
BU outrebounded CC 38-26 and had 14 second chance points. They also had 18 points off Cobber turnovers.
With the win, Bethel clinches at least a share of the MIAC regular season championship for the first time in program history. The Royals are 19-6 overall and 15-5 in MIAC games.
The duo had the first seven points to jumpstart the BU offense as they quickly downed the Cobbs 9-0.
It was the second straight game Concordia allowed nine points before putting the ball through the basket.
The Cobbers would battle back thanks to a layup and triple from Alderman and inside buckets from Kevin Wolfe.
Guilherme Saad canned a 3-pointer to bring the score to 16-13 but Bethel's Bridgeport Tusler put together a 7-0 run of his own to negate the CC run.
Bethel stretched their lead to 40-23 but Alderman answered in the three minutes of the half.
The Fargo native got downhill and scored 10 straight points for Concordia while helping limit BU to just one bucket.
The Alderman push cut the deficit to 42-33 at the break.
Austin Nelson came out of the half and put together a run of his own to further cut the deficit.
The senior wing hit three straight free-throw line jumpers, followed by a pair of Alderman free throws to make it 50-45 with 14 minutes remaining.
On the very next possession it was Tusler, again, coming through with a 3-pointer to stop the Concordia momentum. He would bury two more long balls in the ensuing minutes to extend the lead back to 17 points.
The Cobbers made one more run and cut the lead to 10 points with four minutes to play with a Nelson trifecta – but Derek Magnuson came alive for the Royals.
The big man had 10 points in the game's closing minutes to ice Bethel's first conference championship.
Alderman's 33 points was a game-high while Nelson added 15 for the Cobbers.
Tusler led the way for the Royals with 25 points. Magnuson's late game rebound-finishes gave him a double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds. Hall added 16 while Wojta chipped in with 13 points for Bethel.
Concordia actually shot a higher percentage than the Royals in the win. CC shot 50.0% (25-of-50) compared to Bethel's 48.2% (30-of-62).
BU took advantage of Cobber turnovers and had 13 offensive rebounds in the win.
DO THREE-SIDED QUARTERS EXIST? Flipping a coin might be the best way to decide the final spot in the MIAC playoffs as Augsburg, St. Olaf and Concordia sit in a three-way spot for the last spot in the conference tournament. Concordia must win on Saturday as the Auggies and Oles will square off against each other for the opportunity at postseason play.
WHAT'S NEXT? Concordia welcomes defending national champion St. Thomas to Moorhead in a must-win battle on Saturday, February 18. The Tommies must win to share the conference championship with Bethel. Concordia must win to have a chance to make the MIAC playoffs. UST is coming off a 65-57 win against St. Mary's.