GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - The No. 8 seeded Concordia Cardinals gave No. 1 seed Cornerstone everything they had on Wednesday night but the Golden Eagles picked up their ninth straight win as they advance to the WHAC Tournament semifinals with a 78-62 victory. The win lifts CU to 28-3 on the year and they will welcome in No. 4 seed UM-Dearborn for a Saturday, 3 p.m. tip inside Mol Arena. The Wolverines came back from down 12 in the final two minutes to defeat Madonna University, 80-78.
Game Flow
Early on it looked as if Cornerstone would continue their dominance on their home floor as
Michael Bradshaw opened the game with a triple and the margin grew to as many as eight in the first three minutes. The Cardinals fought back to make it a 2-point deficit (26-24) before a
Sam Vander Sluis 3-point play upped the lead back to five and CU went into the locker room leading 36-30.
The two teams traded baskets for much of the opening 10 minutes before CU took a 42-35 lead and went on a 10-0 run finished off by a pair of dunks from
Kyle Steigenga and
Sam Vander Sluis to increase the margin to 17 (52-35). The Cardinals would not go away however and fought back to within eight (55-47) but that would be as close as they would get as CU again used timely stops and key buckets from
Christian Rodriguez and Bradshaw to close out the victory.
Say What?
"Give Concordia credit – they battled and did some things that had our guys out of place. That is a well-coached basketball team. I thought we defended much better in spurts tonight and while we did not hit a lot of shots, we got some great looks " – Head Coach
Kim Elders
By the Numbers
26/16/5/3 –
Sam Vander Sluis stuffed the stat sheet with points, rebounds, blocks and assists
16/13 –
Kyle Steigenga posted his 12
th double-double of the season
18 – Points for
Michael Bradshaw on 7/12 shooting (4/7 from behind arc)
4 – Assists for
Christian Rodriguez and
Riley Costen
50.8 – Cornerstone finished 31/61 from the field
Up Next
Cornerstone advances to Saturday's WHAC Semifinals where they will host No. 4 seed UM-Dearborn (80-78 winner over Madonna). The other half of the bracket will feature No. 2 seed Indiana Tech facing No. 6 seed Rochester, who upset No. 3 Aquinas on the road.
Men's Basketball Contact:
Aaron Sagraves
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