SEWARD, Neb. – Concordia University, Nebraska Men’s Basketball will play on. For the fifth straight year, the Bulldogs have advanced to the GPAC semifinals. Despite some stretches of unsightly offensive basketball, Concordia gritted its way to a 66-60 home win over Dordt in Wednesday (Feb. 25)’s GPAC quarterfinal clash. The Bulldogs used a 19-5 points-off-turnovers advantage to pull it out of the fire and erase a 13-point second-half deficit.
Before thinking about the challenge awaiting in the GPAC semifinals, Head Coach Ben Limback and company reacted to the latest white knuckler. The result marked Limback’s 250th career win as head coach at his alma mater.
“That was not the way, I don’t think, either team thought that game was going to go,” Limback said. “Last time I think it was in the 90s. I thought their ball pressure and their switching bothered us. The intensity of both sides bothered the offenses. We didn’t take great 3s in the first half but didn’t make 3s like we were capable of … Gutsy effort defensively. Down the stretch, the last three minutes, we really got after it and guarded and put that thing away.”
The last time the two sides met, both teams shot north of 53 percent in a 94-88 shootout win for Concordia. The contrast on Wednesday was staggering. This was more of a brawl with the circumstances appearing bleak when the Bulldogs found themselves trailing 48-35 midway through the second half. Concordia looked sluggish in going without a single point for the final five minutes of the first half.
Eventually, the Bulldogs found life from the perimeter. Garret Johnson stopped a 14-2 Defender run with a triple. In the moments that followed, Concordia staged a 13-2 run powered by a pair of Zac Kulus triples. Suddenly, the Bulldogs were within one (52-51) with fewer than five minutes to play. Two of the most significant buckets came on a layup apiece from Brooks Kissinger and Dane Jacobsen that broke a 57-57 stalemate.
The ensuing sequences saw Dordt come up empty on five of its final six offensive possessions. Meanwhile, Jacobsen salted the game away by going 4-for-4 from the foul line in the game’s final 30 seconds. As Concordia celebrated by ringing the bell, the Defenders were left to stew on their 18 turnovers (12 in the first half) and uncharacteristically inefficient perimeter shooting (7-for-27). Dordt (16-13) entered the night averaging nearly 88 points per game.
Said Jacobsen, “All year we’ve been talking about our defense. We really struggled the last month or two. The last few weeks of practice have been really good. We’ve been getting on each other and pushing each other. At the end, it came down to defense and rebounding, and we made some free throws. We just did the little things. Our offense clearly wasn’t clicking, but we found a way.”
On a night when buckets were difficult to come by, Kissinger’s 23 points proved critical. He made 10-of-14 shots from the floor and grabbed seven rebounds while notching his 20th 20-point game of the season. Jacobsen was the team’s only other double-figure scorer with 12 points. Freshman Jacob Duitsman supplied nine points and five rebounds and Zac Kulus chipped in six points and three steals. Peyton Brown added four points off the bench in providing a second half spark.
Defensively, Concordia did fine work while using a guard heavy starting lineup of Duitsman, Jacobsen, Kissinger, Kulus and Jaxon Stueve.
Added Limback, “When Zac got back-to-back 3s, our offense really started to get going. Brooks started to get into the paint a little more because they were worried about 3s. When we’re not hitting 3s, we’re an easy team to guard because it’s Brooks Kissinger. The second half, we started to loosen up and relax a little bit.”
Ty Van Essen topped Dordt with 19 points and 11 rebounds. The Defenders owned a 32-27 edge in rebounding and shot a slightly higher overall percentage than Concordia (48.1 to 44.4). The Bulldogs held advantages at the foul line (11-for-17 compared to 3-for-3) and in turnover margin (plus-nine).
Fourth-seeded Concordia has earned a trip to Sioux City, Iowa, to play GPAC regular season champion Morningside (22-6) in the GPAC semifinals. The two sides will square off at 3 p.m. CT on Saturday. During the regular season, the Mustangs won two close matchups with the Bulldogs, triumphing by scores of 97-81 in Sioux City and 123-115 (double OT) in Seward.