Men's Basketball blows by unbeaten Lakeland

MEQUON, Wis. – Concordia University Wisconsin escaped its recent offensive woes with a breakout performance to defeat unbeaten Lakeland College in convincing fashion, 86-61, on Wednesday night inside the R. John Buuck Field House. The Falcons also snapped a four-game losing streak against the rival Muskies.

A crucial 24-7 scoring run during an eight minute and 50 second stretch in the first half blew the game wide open and gave all momentum to CUW in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference game. During the run, seven different Falcons found the scoring column and four had multiple field goals.

The scoring onslaught continued during the second half of play, as the lead increased to 20 or more points for the final 15 minutes of the game. CUW ended with a commanding 44-24 advantage in paint scoring and an 18-4 positive differential in second chance points.

Junior Malcolm Bowers (Germantown, Wis.) led the Falcons with 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting, while junior Keith Kahlfeldt (New Berlin, Wis.) netted 12 points and pulled down six rebounds. Junior Bradley Prinsen (Oostburg, Wis.) scored 11 points and had a career-high-tying eight rebounds and five steals. Senior Dustin Thumann (Marshfield, Wis.) also scored 10 points.

Senior Mark Scholz (Greenfield, Wis.) finished with nine points and seven rebounds, while junior Brett Boettcher (New Holstein, Wis.) scored eight points and grabbed eight rebounds off the bench. Freshman Matt Wilke (Sheboygan Falls, Wis.) also drained a pair of triples in the second half.

CUW (2-4, 1-2 NACC) shot well in the opening half, but its red-hot 55.2 percent (16-of-29) over the final 20 minutes put the game out of reach for LC, who shot just 37.0 percent in the game. The Falcons also drained 10 3-pointers, which is the second time this season it made double-digit long balls.

CUW's offense was exciting the crowd, but the defense was getting the job done by forcing 16 LC turnovers and converting those errors into 21 points. They also held the Muskies to 6-of-17 from downtown and to three offensive rebounds, which resulted in many possessions with just one shot.

CUW completed a three-game week with a 4:15 p.m. NACC contest on Saturday against Benedictine University inside the R. John Buuck Field House.