MOOREHAD, Minn. – The St. Olaf College men's basketball team ran into a hot-shooting Concordia-Moorhead team in an 81-56 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) road defeat on Wednesday night at Memorial Auditorium.
Concordia (9-11, 5-6 MIAC) shot 55.9 percent (33-for-59) from the field, including 45.8 percent (11-for-24), from three-point range to complete a regular-season sweep of St. Olaf (2-18, 1-10 MIAC). The Cobbers, who won the other meeting by a nearly-identical 82-56 margin after making 10-of-20 three-pointers, entered the game shooting 29.8 percent from behind the arc as a team.
Senior
Addison Metcalf was the lone double-figure scorer for St. Olaf with 13 points on 5-for-9 shooting from the field, including going 2-for-3 from three-point range, in 22 minutes. Sophomore
Jachin Mertes had nine points, junior
Kobe Kirk added seven, and first year
Luther Tostrud contributed six points and five rebounds off the bench. The Oles shot 38.2 percent (21-for-55) overall and 25.0 percent (5-for-20) from long distance.
Jacob Cook led four Cobbers in double figures with a game-high 19 points, six rebounds, and three assists. Rowan Nelson tallied 13 points, six rebounds, and four assists, while Peyton Belka and Connor Engelmeyer had 12 points apiece. Belka also had six rebounds and four assists, while Engelmeyer, who had made two three-pointers on the season coming in, was 4-for-4 from deep on the night.
Both teams started out hot from the field with 11 points apiece over the first four minutes, as Metcalf had six early points for the Oles. From there, the Cobbers went on a 17-3 run over the next 5:20 to open up a 28-14 lead after making 12 of their first 15 shots.
Concordia led by as many as 20 in the first half and took a 41-25 lead into the locker room after Cook and Nelson combined for 18 first-half points. Early in the second half, St. Olaf got its offense going with 13 points in the first 5:12 to get within 11, but that was as close as the Oles got. After St. Olaf trimmed its deficit to 11, Concordia scored the next 14 points to balloon its lead to 25.
The Oles will play host to Augsburg University for Senior Day on Saturday, Feb. 8 at 3 p.m.
