Men's Basketball escapes with victory at Rockford

ROCKFORD, Ill. – Keith Kahlfeldt drained a pair of free throws with 1.6 seconds to play before Rockford University missed a shot as time expired on Saturday afternoon inside the Seaver Center. Concordia University Wisconsin escaped with the 93-91 road victory during Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference play to begin the 2014 calendar year.

Neither team wanted to take control of the game, as there were 27 lead changes and 13 ties. CUW held a five-point lead with 36 seconds to play before RU made consecutive layups and a free throw to knot the scoreboard at 91-91 with 19 seconds to play.

After a Falcon timeout, Kahlfeldt (sophomore, New Berlin, Wis.) drove the bucket, was fouled and subsequently made both free throw attempts to give CUW a two-point edge with 1.6 seconds left on the clock. AFter a Regents timeout to draw up a last second play, they heaved the ball 80-plus feet and Zach Wallace's 10-foot jumper clanged off the back iron.

Key factors in CUW's win were its 16 steals – the most since Jan. 13, 2012 when they had 19 thefts – and 32 points off the bench. In all, eight different Falcons stole a pass and Kahlfeldt and junior Mark Scholz (Greenfield, Wis.) each had a career-best three steals.

Scholz was effective on the offensive end of the court with a career-high 16 points after shooting 4-of-7 from the field and 8-of-10 from the free throw line, which was a career best.

Kahlfeldt finished with a team-high 24 points on 10-of-16 shooting, while sophomore Bradley Prinsen (Oostburg, Wis.) netted 19 points and dished out four assists. Freshman Eric Kittel (Brillion, Wis.) had 12 points, three assists and three steals.

RU (8-5, 4-4 NACC) was led by David Dixon's game-high 26 points on 10-of-14 from the floor, to go along with nine rebounds, five assists and three steals. Marlon Sykes and Scott Suchy finished with 18 and 17 points, respectively, while combining for 12 assists, eight rebounds and five steals.

CUW (6-5, 4-3 NACC) shot a season-best 50.8 percent (33-of-65) from the field, but allowed RU to shoot 56.5 percent (35-of-62) for the game. The Falcons forced 21 turnovers, but were outrebounded 37-30.

The game was tied for the fifth time, 36-36, before the Falcons put together an 11-2 scoring run to own the game's largest lead, nine points at 47-38 with 2:34 to play in the opening half. During the run, Kahlfeldt scored six points.

Each team scored at least 50 points in the paint and CUW ended with a 25-16 difference in points off turnovers.

CUW returns to the court on Wednesday for a 7 p.m. NACC showdown at Concordia University Chicago.