Men's Basketball 2/9/05 -- Concordia-Moorhead 105, Augsburg 79

BOXSCORE

MOORHEAD, Minn. (2/9/05) -- There were two major story lines that were awaiting finalization for the Concordia College-Moorhead men's basketball team on Wednesday night against visiting Augsburg College. The first was the Cobbers' ability to clinch a spot in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference playoffs with a win over the Auggies. The second was Concordia senior Soren Nelson's attempt to become the ninth player in Cobber men's basketball history to score 1,000 points in a career.

After 40 minutes of play both story lines had been played out and both were met with encore accolades. Concordia scored 58 points in the first half en route to crushing Augsburg 105-79 and clinching a spot in the conference playoffs. As good as the Cobbers offense was in the game, Nelson was even better. He drained 14-of-19 shots (73.6 percent), scored a career-high 33 points and smashed the 1,000-point barrier. For good measure, he also grabbed a career-high 15 rebounds.

Concordia's 26-point win was the largest margin of victory this season and most since the Cobbers beat Hamline by 40 points at the end of last season. The win also puts Concordia into the league playoffs for the second consecutive season and third in the past five years. Finally, Concordia is now tied with Bethel for fourth place in the MIAC -- the final spot to host a home playoff game. The Cobbers are now 10-7 in the MIAC and 12-10 overall.

Augsburg continues its free fall from the top of the MIAC to out of the playoffs. The Auggies, who started the season 4-2 in league play, have lost seven of their past eight games and are now 6-11 in league play and 8-14 overall.

Nelson entered the game needing 12 points to become the ninth player in men's basketball history to score 1,000 points for a career. He surpassed that milestone by hitting a fade-away jumper from the baseline with 10:31 left in the first half. He continued to knock down shot after shot in the first 20 minutes and finished the opening half with 23 points and nine rebounds. He was the catalyst behind Concordia's 58-point offensive outburst in the first half. That total is the most points scored in a single half since they scored 65 in the second half against Mayville State on November 11, 2003.

Staked to a 20-point lead, Concordia continued to attack the Augsburg basket and finished the game by outscoring the Auggies 47-41 in the second half. For the game, the Cobbers shot 65.5 percent (38-of-58) from the floor and also knocked down 47.4 percent (9-of-19) from 3-point range. Augsburg shot 40.0 percent in both halves and finished the game by making 28-of-70 shots from the floor. Concordia held a decisive edge in rebounding, as they gained a 39-25 margin on the glass.

Besides Nelson's career game, Concordia placed four players in double figures and had nine players score at least two points. Keith Eckhoff won the battle of the league's top two scorers. He finished with 19 points as compared to only four from Augsburg's Lucas Olson-Patterson (Sr., Minneapolis, Minn./Robbinsdale Cooper HS). Eckhoff also added seven assists.

Freshman Brock Citterman continues to gain confidence in a Cobber uniform and put up his best numbers as a college player. He scored 17 points in 20 minutes of action and went 5-of-8 from the field and 5-of-6 from the free throw line. Luke Linz was the second Concordia reserve to score in double-digits. He was 5-of-6 from the field and finished with 12 points.

Augsburg was led in scoring by a pair of players that came off the bench. Olson-Patterson entered the game as the league's top scorer, but made only 2-of-11 shots from the floor and was hampered by a tough defensive presence from the Cobbers. Olson-Patterson also saw his consecutive-game streak of scoring in double figures halted at 28, including his first 20 games of the season.

Curtis Batchelor (So., Port St. Lucie, Fla./Fort Pierce Central HS) scored a career-high 21 points and hauled down 10 rebounds to record his first career double-double. Devin Rose (Fr., Granton, Wis.) made 7-of-9 shots from the floor and finished with 20 points, a career-high, in the losing effort.

Justin Koslowski (Fr., Wausau, Wis./Wausau Newman HS) scored 15 points for the Auggies, and Kevin Keto (So., Forest Lake,Minn.) had eight points.

Concordia returns to MIAC action on Saturday (2/12) with a 3 p.m. game at Bethel. Augsburg is back in action with its final home game of the season on Monday (2/14), hosting Gustavus at 7:30 p.m. at Si Melby Hall.