NORTHFIELD, Minn. – On a night when senior
Connor Martin reached the 1,000-point milestone, the St. Olaf College men's basketball team snapped its three-game losing streak with a 66-58 victory over Concordia-Moorhead on Wednesday night at Skoglund Center.
Martin entered the night eight points shy of the 1,000-point benchmark and became the 26th student-athlete in program history to achieve the feat on a layup with just over two minutes remaining in the first half. Despite facing a sizable height disadvantage, St. Olaf (5-8, 4-4 MIAC) held Concordia (8-5, 4-4 MIAC) over 14 points below its season scoring average to move even with the Cobbers in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) standings.
Sophomore
Kobe Kirk led all scorers with 17 points on 6-for-13 shooting, while Martin added 16 points on 7-for-12 from the field. Martin also contributed a team-high six rebounds and a game-high four assists, as he and Kirk were the lone double-figure scorers for the Oles. Five other Oles had between five and seven points, as St. Olaf shot 49.1 percent (26-for-53) from the field in the win.
Rowan Nelson led four double-digit scorers for Concordia with 13 points and seven rebounds, while Jackson Loge registered a 12-point, 11-rebound double-double off the bench. Matthew Johnson also scored 12 points and Jacob Cook fell one rebound shy of a double-double with 10 points and nine boards. The Cobbers enjoyed a 40-31 advantage in rebounding and turned 15 offensive rebounds into 15 second-chance points but were just 2-for-15 (13.3 percent) from behind the arc.
Concordia, which had scored 82 points or more in each of its last three games, including a 93-point outburst against Carleton College on Saturday, surged out to a 9-3 lead over the first four-plus minutes and led by as many as nine in the first half, but St. Olaf closed the half on an 8-0 run to take a 34-31 lead at the break. The Cobbers held the largest lead of the half at 17-8 with 12:24 to go, but the Oles battled back to tie the game at 26-26 on a fast-break layup by Martin with 3:57 remaining.
The visitors scored the next five points to reclaim a five-point lead before Martin hit the 1,000-point mark with a layup with 2:07 to go. Kirk followed with a pair of three-pointers for the final points of the half to cap an 11-point first 20 minutes for the sophomore. Sophomore
Ryan Warren provided a spark off the bench with five points, two assists, and a steal in seven first-half minutes.
St. Olaf led by at least three points for the entire second half, holding Concordia to 11-for-31 (35.5 percent) shooting from the field after the break. After seeing their lead cut to three for the fourth time in the half, the Oles responded with a 7-0 run on a three-pointer by junior
Addison Metcalf and back-to-back buckets in the paint from first year
Jachin Mertes to take the largest lead of the game at 55-45 with 9:38 to go.
Concordia trimmed its deficit to four with 6:03 remaining but scored just two points until a layup by Jacob Cook with 1:16 left. With the Oles leading by six, Martin sealed the win with a layup with 49 seconds remaining to make it a three-possession game. The Cobbers started a pair of 6' 6" forwards and a 6' 10" forward, while fifth-year senior
Brendan Kauls was the only Ole starter to stand 6' 6" or above.
St. Olaf travels to Arden Hills to face Bethel University on Saturday, Jan. 13 at 3 p.m.
