The Concordia University, Nebraska men's basketball team spilt a pair of games during Thanksgiving week, falling to Hastings College on Wednesday, 77-63, before defeating York College, 89-69, on Saturday. Both games were played at the PE Building in Seward.
With the win on Saturday Concordia (5-4, 0-1 GPAC) avenges an early season loss to York (1-8). Hastings, receiving votes in the NAIA Preseason Poll, remained undefeated at 7-0 with their win over the Bulldogs.
Against Hastings the Bulldogs had a 16-6 lead with 12:06 remaining in the first half after back-to-back-to-back threes by Austin Thoms, Benjamin Buhr and Dustin Weber. But the Broncos then went on an 8-0 run over the next four minutes to pull within a bucket.
The Broncos eventually took the lead for good on a pair of free throws by 6-11 post player Bobby Kempf. Another triple by Austin Thoms pulled Concordia within three, 29-26 at the intermission. The Bulldogs wouldn't get closer then four points the rest of the game as the Broncos pushed their lead to as many 16.
On Saturday, hot shooting helped the Bulldogs to a 20-point win over the Panthers of York College. In an earlier meeting York got the better of Concordia 70-65. In that contest the Bulldogs shot just 36 percent from the field and 57 percent from the free throw line.
In the win Concordia shot 58.9 percent from the floor and 77.3 percent from the charity stripe. The Bulldogs were especially accurate in the first half, hitting 62.1 percent of their field goals.
The senior duo of Buhr and Scott Hannon led the Bulldogs, scoring 22 and 21 points respectively. Buhr was 8-of-11 from the floor, including 5-of-7 from beyond the arc. Also in double digits was freshman Tyler Bredehoeft with 10 points (3-for-3 from the floor).
In all, 10 different Bulldogs scored. Thoms finished with eight in the win after scoring 24 points in the loss to Hastings. Andy Miner came off the bench against York to grab a game-high nine rebounds to go along with six points.
The Bullldogs schedule continues this week with a home game against Doane College (Wednesday) before traveling to Sioux City, Iowa on Saturday to take on Morningside College.
