Bowers scores career-high 20, Falcons sink Concordia Chicago with free throws

RIVER FOREST, Ill. – Malcolm Bowers scored a career-high 20 points and Concordia University Wisconsin made its most free throws of the season en route to a 78-67 victory at Concordia University Chicago on Saturday afternoon. The Falcons win was the fifth-consecutive on the road in Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference play.

CUW sank 30 free throws, including 9-of-11 in the final three minutes of the game. The Falcons led by just four points with 6:54 to play, but an 11-1 scoring run over the next four and a half minutes put the game out of reach for the Cougars.

Junior Malcolm Bowers (Germantown, Wis.) had a career-high with 20 points, including an 8-of-10 performance at the charity stripe. He also pulled down six rebounds (three offensive) and stole four passes. Junior Brett Boettcher (New Holstein, Wis.) ended with his fourth career double-double and second of the season with 15 points and career-high 14 rebounds, which is tied for the 10th most in program history.

Junior Keith Kahlfeldt (New Berlin, Wis.) added 17 points, including 8-of-9 at the free throw line, and rejected a career-best three shots. Junior Trevor Krizenesky (Brillion, Wis.) hauled in a career-high four rebounds in just eight minutes of action off the bench.

Mike Walmer led the Cougars (5-13, 3-12 NACC) with 25 points, five rebounds, four assists and four steals. Tino Vazquez tallied 11 points, six rebounds and three steals in a reserve role, while Kylan Anderson had 10 points.

The Falcons outrebounded the Cougars 37-25 in the victory and neither team played well, as there were a combined 41 turnovers and 47 fouls. CUW held a slim 21-17 advantage in points off turnovers.

A total of four scoring ties and four lead changes happened in the first 20 minutes of play, before the Falcons took a 41-37 lead into the locker room at halftime. The Cougars bench accounted for 14 points and the largest lead was held by CUW at seven points twice.

The Falcons held a single digit lead for the majority of the second half before using an 11-1 scoring run to take control with three minutes to play. After the Cougars shot an impressive 56.5 percent in the first half, they went cold and made 34.5 percent in the final 20 minutes of play.

CUW (11-7, 10-5 NACC) returns to play on Tuesday for a 7 p.m. NACC contest at Lakeland College.