by Kenny Buck
buckke@mnstate.edu
Fresh off of their tournament victory in Fairbanks, Ala., MSUM men’s basketball took on the Concordia Cobbers in an exhibition game last Tuesday night.
Despite the game not counting against either of the teams’ conference records, both had something to play for.
A victory for MSUM meant the 100th time the Dragons would be victorious over the Cobbers.
The Dragons, lead by Alaska Invitational Tournament MVP senior Jordan Riewer, proved to be too much for Concordia.
MSUM jumped out to an early 21-11 lead the Cobbers were never able to overcome.
Junior forward Isaac Sevlie scored 15 points and pulled down seven rebounds, both tops for the Dragons.
Concordia battled to keep the game close by cutting a large first half deficit to 43-31 going into halftime.
That was as close as Concordia got the rest of the way as the Dragons outscored the Cobbers 44-28 in the second half to take the win 87-59.
MSUM had five players in double figures and were too big for Concordia, out-rebounding the team 41-30.
Sophomore forward Matt Nelson has experienced the rivalry for the past few years and says it was a great win over a tough team.
“I think it’s great that we’ve played that many games,” Nelson said, “It’s a crosstown rivalry and we’ve played against them all summer, so it’s fun to get out here and compete.”
Just three days after their last win in Fairbanks, Nelson admitted they were still fatigued from the trip.
“We know Concordia’s a good division three school,” Nelson said, “We came to play, but coming off a trip to Alaska last weekend we’re all a little tired.”
After winning the Alaska Invitational, the Dragons’ original plan was to fly to Chicago and fly to Minneapolis on Sunday, but assistant coach Justin Wieck said there was a little trouble leaving the windy city.
“We spent eight hours before they finally cancelled our flight,” Wieck said. “We went to a hotel and flew to Minneapolis Monday and drove back the rest of the way.”
With the win over Concordia, the Dragons moved to 6-0 heading into conference play.
Wieck is happy being undefeated so far but says they know there’s much more season left to be played.
“It’s good, but we know the competition will take a step up,” Wieck said. “It feels great, but we know we’ve got work to do and we need to be better.”