Luther ends CUW season 68-61

The home crowd was enormous and electric, but in the end Luther's superior rebounding and inside offense made the difference as the visitors overcame a two point deficit in the closing minutes to end the Falcon dream season 68-61 tonight in the Buuck Fieldhouse.

Concordia (23-5) trailed 30-29 at the break but wiped out a 7 point second half deficit to grab a 57-56 lead on Cory Stark's only basket of the game with 2:24 remaining.

Luther's Rick Aleman's long 3 pointer broke a 57-57 tie at 1:27 and it was frustratingly downhill from there for Concordia as the Falcons missed 5 three point efforts in the closing minute while Luther closed the game with free throws.

Rebounding told the story all night as Luther bested Concordia by a whopping 47-29 margin on the glass and had 20 second chance points.

Tyler Wedemeier grabbed 10 of those Norse boards and led all scorers with 19.

Luther moved on to play UW- Stevens Point, a 70-49 winner over St. Norbert, in the regional final Saturday night at 7:00pm in the Buuck Fieldhouse. The Pointers scored a 78-58 victory.

Luke Doedens paced CUW with 18 points while Mitchell Schneider and Skip Newton-Kemp added 13 each.