Royally Hot Second Half Sinks Cobbers
Concordia was tied at halftime at Bethel but then the Royals found their shooting touch, connected on 59.3% of their attempts from the floor in the second half and handed the Cobbers a 73-63 loss in Arden Hills.
ARDEN HILLS, Minn. (2/05/20)---Concordia used a 12-6 run at the back end of the first half to head into halftime tied with Bethel but was then outscored 46-36 in the second half and lost 73-63 in Arden Hills.
Junior guard Bryden Urie continued his scoring tear as he posted a career-high 27 points one game after going for a career-high 25 points against Hamline on Saturday. Urie hadn't scored more than 15 points in a game since Jan. 13 but has found his scoring touch in the past two games and averaged 26.0 points in that stretch. Against the Royals Urie was 9-for-17 from the field and 4-for-5 from 3-point range.
The Cobbers shot above 43.0% from the floor in both halves and made at least 33.3% of their shots from outside the arc in both periods of play but the difference in the game was Bethel's hot shooting touch in the second half. The Royals shot 32.1% from the floor and didn't make a 3-point field goal (0-for-7) in the first half but the connected on 59.3% of their attempts from the floor and made four long-range shots in the second period to post the 10-point win.
Concordia finished the game by outrebounding Bethel 31-29 but the Royals held a 42-26 in points in the paint.
Urie was the only Concordia player with more than eight points in the game. Cam Arndt went 3-for-4 from the field and 2-for-2 from the foul line and finished with eight points.
Senior John Reiten had a team-high seven rebounds and came up with two blocks in the game.
INSIDE STAT INFO: Concordia has now outrebounded its opponents in three straight games. The Cobbers had only outrebounded their opponents on two occasions in their first 18 games. The 3-game streak with more rebounds by CC is the most since the beginning of the 2018-19 campaign when Concordia outrebounded its opponents in six straight games. The truly strange stat fact is that the Cobbers are 0-9 in those two outrebounding streaks.
UP NEXT: It doesn't get any easier for Concordia as they will head back to the St. Paul area on Saturday, Feb. 8 and square off against No.4 ranked St. Thomas at 1 p.m. The Tommies are 18-2 overall and 14-1 in league play and have won their last seven games.