A Long And Winding Road
Concordia gave up another late first-half run, was outscored under the basket and lost for the third straight road game.
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (1/17/15)—The good news for Concordia is that they are about to start a four-game home stand. The bad news is that the Cobbers dropped their third straight road game in a seven-day period and went from a tie for second place in the MIAC standings to a tie for fifth place.
A 10-0 run in the final 1:39 of the first half sent Concordia to their third straight road loss. The Cobbers watched a two-point lead at 23-21 turn into a 31-23 halftime deficit en route to a 59-50 loss at Augsburg.
Concordia is now 8-7 overall and 4-4 in conference play. The Auggies now have an identical 8-7 overall mark while they improve to 3-5 in the MIAC.
The late first-half opponent run has been a reoccurring theme for Concordia in the last few games. The Cobbers have been outscored by a combined total of 31-8 in the final two minutes of their last four games.
Another reoccurring theme for Concordia has been their slow starts which cause them to chase the game. The Cobbers fell behind 12-4 in the first nine minutes of the game against Augsburg and felt the pressure of having to score on every possession to cut into the lead.
Concordia righted the offensive ship midway through the opening period when they scored points on seven of nine possessions and erased the eight-point deficit. The Cobbers took their only lead of the game at the 5-minute mark of the first half but then had it slip through their fingers in the final two minutes of the half.
The Cobbers made one significant run at Augsburg in the second half. Concordia trailed by 15 points – the biggest deficit of the game – with 9:33 to play and then went on a 9-0 run to get to within four at 52-48. The Cobbers then went 4:57 without scoring a point as Augsburg was able to put the game away by outscoring CC 7-2 in the final five minutes of play.
Concordia shot under 40.0% from the floor for the fourth straight game. The Cobbers were 21-for-55 (38.2%) from the floor. The shooting touch was just as cold from outside the arc. CC shot 21.1% (4-for-19) from 3-point range.
The Cobbers struggled defensively underneath the basket. Concordia was outscored 42-28 in points in the paint. The 42 points allowed in the lane is the most this season and marks the second time in the past three games that CC has allowed at least 40 "points in the paint".
Alley Fisher was the only Cobber with more than 10 points in the game. She had a game-high 18 points after going 7-for-11 from the field. Fisher also had four rebounds and two assists.
Olivia Johnson grabbed a game-high six rebounds and scored seven points.
Concordia will return to the friendly confines of Memorial Auditorium when they host Carleton on Wednesday, Jan. 21 at 5:45 p.m.