Men's Basketball frustrates Dominican in home victory

MEQUON, Wis. – Concordia University Wisconsin frustrated Dominican University all game and withstood a Stars scoring run to start the second half, to earn a 72-54 victory on Tuesday night inside the R. John Buuck Field House.

The win followed a 10-day layoff for the Falcons and was the third straight over the Stars in Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference play. CUW forced 21 turnovers and its bench helped game the momentum back after a 12-2 scoring run by the opposition to start the second half, which cut their lead to just four points.

The Falcons also went to the painted area often and tallied 42 points, while scoring 18 second chance points on 17 offensive rebounds (tied a season high). They also ended with a season-best 15 steals. After CUW saw its advantage trimmed to four points, it finished the final 16 minutes of the game shooting 11-of-18 from the floor (61.1 percent).

Junior Malcolm Bowers (Germantown, Wis.) led the Falcons with 14 points, seven rebounds and two steals, while senior Dustin Thumann (Marshfield, Wis.) tallied 13 points, two assists and two steals off the bench. In all, 10 players found the scoring column and 14 saw action.

Josh Mayberry led all players with 17 points, to go along with six rebounds, four assists and three steals, but also committed six turnovers. Quinn Pokora recorded 11 points and three others Stars (1-9, 1-6 NACC) players grabbed at least five rebounds.

The first half was all Falcons, as they forced 13 turnovers and scored 14 points off those Stars errors. CUW led by as many as 14 points and appeared to be in complete control with a 38-24 lead at the intermission

The first three minutes and 49 seconds of the second half was a scare for the Falcons, because the Stars exploded for a 12-2 scoring run to get within four points and force a CUW timeout. Following the pep talk by head coach Shawn Cassidy, the Falcons scored nine unanswered points and forced four turnovers.

After regaining control, they rebuilt the advantage to as many as 23 points with 6:37 to play following a Bowers layup. The plays of the game happened with junior Bradley Prinsen (Oostburg, Wis.), who is 6-foot, rejected 6-foot-5 Rich Bodee. A minute later, freshman Matt Wilke (Sheboygan Falls, Wis.) excited the crowd with a thunderous dunk off a backdoor cut.

CUW (3-5, 2-3 NACC) returns to action for its second game of three in the week on Thursday at Wisconsin Lutheran College at 7 p.m.