BISMARCK, N.D. – In front of a standing room only crowd that never sat down and mirrored the energy on the floor from the opening tip to the final whistle, the University of Mary men's basketball team gave the home fans the Marauders first home playoff win in five years.
Featuring a dynamic offensive effort in the first half and gritty defense in the second half, the Marauders edged visiting Concordia-St. Paul 76-72 in the opening round of the 2016 NSIC / Sanford Health men's basketball tournament.
The Marauders advance to the NSIC tournament semifinals at the Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D., and will face Minnesota State University at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, February, 27.
Just U-Mary's second home playoff game in ten seasons as a member of the Northern Sun, the Marauders are 2-0 at the McDowell Activity Center and 0-6 elsewhere in league tournament play.
An energetic U-Mary offense and a frenetic defense set the first half tone for the Marauders. Using five steals and eight total miscues by Concordia, U-Mary held a 13-9 edge in points off turnovers in the opening stanza. Four dunks by the Marauders - including a high-flying throwdown by
Devan Douglas off a
Marquealis Edwards missed three-point attempt for a 29-26 home team lead - threatened to blow the roof off the packed McDowell Activity Center each time.
Despite outstanding play on both ends of the floor, U-Mary entered intermission leading just 44-39 as Concordia shot 59.3 percent from the floor, including a 5-of-10 effort on 3-point attempts.
While the first half contained the flash, the second half intensity kept ratcheting higher with each possession.
After Matt Ambriz opened the second half scoring with a layup for the Golden Bears, Edwards scored a pair of fast break baskets and
Brandon Tyler hit a trey to push the Marauders ahead by 10. Later five straight points from Edwards on a 3-pointer and two free throws pushed the Marauders advantage to 65-52, the largest lead of the day for U-Mary.
The tide soon turned against the Marauders following
Isaac Lindquist's bucket at the 6:10 mark that pushed U-Mary ahead 73-60. Shea Mandli started a 10-0 Golden Bears run with a conventional 3-point play, getting fouled while making a jumper and converting the free throw attempt. Cole Olstad followed with a 3-pointer and a layup. Mandli closed the run with two free throws and Concordia trailed just 73-70 with 1:13 remaining.
Struggling to score, U-Mary was 0-for-6 from the field, missed a free throw attempt and committed three turnovers during the Golden Bears run before Edwards hit a pair of gift shots with 36 seconds on the clock and pushing the Marauders lead to 75-70.
Bryndan Matthews followed with a layup for Concordia with 24 seconds to make the contest a one-possession game. After U-Mary missed a free throw, Olstad missed a three-ball attempt to tie the game but the rebound rolled out of bounds to give CSP another chance to knot the score. Olstad was then fouled immediately before getting his next shot off and missed two free throws with two seconds remaining.
Bryan Jefferson snared the rebound and hit a single free throw to secure the U-Mary win and send Marauders fans into a frenzy.
Edwards led the Marauders with 16 points, six assists and three steals. The senior guard also made all five of his free throws, was 5-of-8 from the floor and had five rebounds.
Douglas scored 13 points for U-Mary and hauled down six rebounds. Lindquist had 10 points and five rebounds and Jefferson recorded nine points and seven rebounds.
Mandli scored a game-high 17 points for Concordia-St. Paul, making all seven free throw attempts. Ambriz hit four treys and scored 16 points.
The Marauders shot 50.8 percent from the floor for the game. After making 59.3 percent of their shots in the first half, the Golden Bears converted just 40 percent in the second half and finished at 50 percent, including a 44.4 percent rate on 3-pointers.
U-Mary improves to 18-11 overall, the most wins for the Marauders since 23 in 2011. Concordia-St. Paul finishes 13-16.
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