Men's Basketball wins NACC Tournament

AURORA, Ill. – It took a lot of hard work and sweat this season, and Concordia University Wisconsin deserves to celebrate after winning the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Men's Basketball Tournament on Saturday afternoon with a 73-71 decision over Aurora University.

The Falcons earned their first NACC Tournament title in program history behind a balanced scoring effort and timely 3-pointers. Mark Scholz made the game-winning layup with 29 seconds to play, but from then on it was a heart-stopping contest that made everyone inside Thornton Gymnasium bite their nails.

Aurora's Tyler Hall had his jumper blocked by Scholz with 6.7 seconds to play and after a failed inbounds pass that went off a Falcon player's leg, the Spartans had a chance to win the game with 6.4 seconds remaining. AU's Brandon Smith caught the inbounds pass in front of his own bench, dribbled to the top of the key and launched an off-balanced 3-pointer as the clock ticked away. At first nobody knew who was going to win as the ball hit the front of the rim, touched the backboard and bounced off the rim twice before falling to the floor.

The Falcons players, coaches, staff and fans erupted in excitement as they knew winning the NACC Tournament title was a hard-earned goal that could be checked off the list. The victory gives CUW the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament. They had previously been selected as an at-large team during the 2010-11 season.

The matchup was evenly matched, as there were 14 scoring ties and 21 lead changes. CUW led by four points midway thought the second half and turned the ball over just seven times, while AU was ahead by a game-best eight points twice in the first half and committed just eight errors.

Junior Bradley Prinsen (Oostburg, Wis.) and sophomore Eric Kittel (Brillion, Wis.) led the Falcons with 17 points apiece. Prinsen also grabbed six rebounds, assisted on two field goals and stole two passes. Meanwhile, Kittel buried five 3-pointers. Junior Keith Kahlfeldt (New Berlin, Wis.) tallied 10 points and freshman Matt Wilke (Sheboygan Falls, Wis.) scored 10 points in 12 minutes off the bench.

CUW rejected five shots in the victory, with a career-high three coming from senior Dustin Thumann (Marshfield, Wis.). The Falcons ended the game shooting 44.1 percent, which included a 9-for-20 (45.0 percent) performance from downtown.

Kyle Pilmer led all players with 26 points (12-of-18 shooting), 13 rebounds and three steals, and Kalmon Stokes scored 14 points for the Spartans. Gavin Walker ended with 12 points and a game-best six assists, while Smith finished with 10 points. Tyler Hall also dished out five assists. AU shot 49.3 percent, but was dismal at the free throw line making on 2-of-12 attempts.

The Spartans quickly went ahead by eight points, 11-3, less than five minutes into the ball game. They also led by eight points, 21-13, with 10:58 before halftime, but CUW erased that deficit with an 8-0 scoring run during a one minute and 51 second span.

After seven scoring ties and six lead changes, junior Taron Edwards (Racine, Wis.) sank a jumper to give the Falcons a 38-37 advantage at halftime. The Spartans had tallied 30 of their points in the paint and scored 12 second chance points off nine offensive rebounds during the first 20 minutes of play.

Neither team led by more than five points in the second half. CUW made pair of layups and three free throws in the final 1:48 of the win.

The Falcons will find out on Monday at 12:30 pm who they will face in the first round of the NCAA Division III Tournament.