Glass Half Full Or Half Empty On Senior Celebration Night?

MOORHEAD, Minn. (02/16/22)---If you're a "glass is half full" person, you see Senior Celebration Night as a way to honor the great accomplishments of the seniors. If you're a "glass is half empty" person, you are sad because the seniors are almost done with their college career.

That same "half full, half empty" philosophy played out in the Cobbers' game with Augsburg on Wednesday.

If you're a "glass is half full" person, you see that Concordia outscored the Auggies 50-47 in the final three quarters of the regular-season finale. If you're a "glass is half empty" person, you look at the fact that the Cobbers turned the ball over seven times and were outscored 23-9 in the first quarter.

Whatever type of person you are, the final score line had Concordia dropping a 70-59 decision to regular-season champion Augsburg. 

Junior Emily Beseman provided the spark for the Cobber comeback in the second half as she connected on seven 3-pointers and finished with a season-high 25 points. The seven made shots from distance and 25 points are both two shy of her career marks. She connected on nine shots from outside the arc and had 27 points in her first year in 2019-20 against Carleton.

The first quarter didn't go south until the final 3-minutes of play. Concordia grabbed a 7-6 lead when Mary Sem knocked down a jumper in the paint. CC trailed by only three points with 3:26 to play, but then the Auggies finished off the quarter by scoring 11 consecutive points.

Augsburg (19-5, 19-2 MIAC) built the lead to as many 19 points in the second quarter before the teams went to the halftime break with the Auggies leading 38-23.

Concordia (7-15, 7-13 MIAC) caught fire at the start of the third quarter when they cut the deficit to six points in the first 4-minutes of play. During that stretch, Beseman made a pair of 3-pointers. A made layup by Makayla Anderson brought the margin to four points, and it looked like the Cobbers would be able to pull even in the final minute of play in the quarter.

The Cobbers' comeback hopes were dashed when Augsburg scored the final three points of the third frame and the first six points of the fourth. That 3:37 stretch pushed the margin back to double digits, and CC would never get closer than eight points for the remainder of the game.

Beseman finished the night by going 8-for-12 from the floor and 7-for-8 from outside the arc. The 25-point game is the third time this season she has scored at least 20 points. Beseman also had five assists and five steals.

Sem added 10 points on a 5-for-8 shooting night. Vanessa Kedl, who was honored at halftime as part of the Senior Celebration ceremony, had a team-high seven rebounds to go with eight points.

UP NEXT: Concordia finishes the regular season with the No.7 seed for the conference tournament. The Cobbers will host No.10-seed St. Catherine in the first round of the MIAC playoffs on Saturday, Feb. 19 at 1 p.m. The Cobbers beat the Wildcats 63-58 in Moorhead in their only meeting of the season.