SEWARD, Neb. – A tight first half gave way to another dominant home win for a Concordia University Men’s Basketball team on a mission. The Bulldogs netted 10 treys in the second half while speeding away from Dordt for a 92-62 rout on Saturday (Feb. 5). Seven Concordia players poured in eight points or more in completing a prolific offensive week.
Head Coach Ben Limback’s program has moved the home win streak to 16 – each of the last 13 conference home affairs have resulted in victories by double-digit margins. The program has reached the 20-win mark for the third time under Limback. The Bulldogs stand at 20-5 overall (13-4 GPAC).
“First half, I thought Dordt was really clogging the paint and going under a lot of stuff,” Limback said. “The message at halftime was just to be resilient and stick with it. We shot 52 percent from three in the second half. Sam Scarpelli off the bench gave us a nice lift. Tristan Smith had a solid game off the bench too … Little plays kept us going. I thought the player of the game was AJ Watson. Defensively, he held their lead guard to one point. I felt like we stirred the drink constantly in that second half.”
The second half was a white washing. By the time you returned from grabbing popcorn, Concordia had built a commanding lead. The key spurts were included an 8-0 run that provided a 50-41 lead and then a 14-5 run that made it 77-55 with 8:15 remaining in the contest. The Defenders gave the Bulldogs space to build a condo on the perimeter. Concordia treys rained in during the second half at the 10:02 mark (Garrett Seagren), the 9:16 mark (Scarpelli), the 8:33 mark (Tristan Smith) and the 8:15 mark (Scarpelli).
Watson was the straw that stirred the drink. He collected 11 points, eight assists and six rebounds (only one turnover) and stuck to Dordt’s Luke Rankin (one point, four turnovers) like glue. Watson was one of six Bulldog double-figure scorers. The others were Noah Schutte (18), Tristan Smith (14), Scarpelli (11), Justin Wiersema (11) and Gage Smith (10). The latter notched another double-double while hauling down 12 rebounds. Carter Kent posted eight points and three assists.
“Early in the season we had a few losses that maybe we shouldn’t have had, but we just try to look forward and take it game-by-game,” Watson said. “We don’t look at the rankings and stuff like that. We try to focus on who we are. We trust each other, we love each other and we hold each other accountable. That’s how we stay focused.”
Concordia put up the exact same point total that it had three days earlier in the win at Midland. This time, the Bulldogs got to that number by draining 17-of-43 (.395) attempts from long range. Nine Concordia players knocked down at least one trey. Joel Baker helped put the cherry on top with one of his own in the final minutes. Tristan Smith made all six of his attempts from the floor in a starring effort off the bench. In addition, the Bulldogs held a 40-29 rebound advantage and were plus-two in turnovers.
Said Limback, “This is a really good basketball team we beat today. I felt like our defense led to our offense during that big run where we went from a five- to a 20-point lead. I’m really proud of the way the guys locked in and turned up the intensity.”
Dordt (17-8, 9-7 GPAC) shot 40.4 percent from the floor and got a team high 15 points from Cade Bleeker. Concordia won this season’s meeting in Sioux Center, Iowa, 84-82.
In the only outing of next week, the Bulldogs will be at Doane (15-11, 8-8 GPAC) on Wednesday for a 7:45 p.m. CT tipoff inside the Haddix Center. In this season’s first matchup, Concordia won a defensive New Year’s Day battle, 60-50, over the Tigers. On Saturday, Doane was clipped in overtime, 84-83, by Northwestern.