2025 MBB National Tournament Press Guide
| Elijah Gaeth broke a 74-74 tie in the final seconds with this triple! @CUNEmbb is moving on to the second round of the national tournament! pic.twitter.com/9Z6H8jEY3U
— Concordia Bulldogs (@cunebulldogs) March 15, 2025
BALDWIN CITY, Kan. – While up against a foe it saw early in the regular season, the sixth-seeded Concordia University, Nebraska Men’s Basketball team never could exhale on Friday (March 14) until Tristan Smith got his mitts on a baseball-style pass to seal the victory. Behind freshman Elijah Gaeth’s trey in the waning seconds, the Bulldogs survived and advanced with a 79-76 heart stopper of a win over No. 11 seed Bethel College (Kan.) in the first round of the NAIA National Championship tournament in Baldwin City, Kan.
Head Coach Ben Limback’s squad will be one of 32 teams left standing when second-round action gets underway on Saturday. Concordia (26-6) has claimed its 16th all-time win at the national tournament.
“That was a great game. Hats off to Bethel,” Limback said. “They’re well-coached and a very good team. We knew that going in. Nothing was going to be easy. There were so many big-time moments at both ends. Zac Kulus hit a huge three when we needed a bucket. We didn’t shoot well and didn’t have a great rhythm at times. Tristan was doing what he does and just had to play through a lot of contact. What bigger moment than Eli Gaeth with the 3-pointer – those are the moments you remember … Fun game for everybody.”
Stars Tristan Smith and Noah Schutte both produced double-doubles on Friday, but it was Gaeth who found himself with the ball in his hands with the game on the line. Though a series of free throws followed the play, Gaeth’s trey made the difference. With the score knotted, 73-73, Gaeth drained a trey after getting his defender in to fly past on a pump fake. The shot sailed through the net with 11.2 seconds left. The Bulldogs proceeded to employ the foul-up-three strategy. Schutte drained two free throws for the game’s final points and the Threshers came up empty in a desperation situation.
Concordia first attempted to allow Smith and Schutte to create on the game’s most critical possession. With defenders swarming Smith, the GPAC Player of the Year kicked it out. Explained Gaeth of the moment, “It was a great environment. All our guys stepped up and played well. We got the dub … I threw it into Tristan, they doubled, I pump-faked, I was wide open and just let it fly. It went in. That was it.”
Neither team led by more than seven points all evening in a contest that featured 13 ties. The Bulldogs had their hands full with Carmelo Yakubu, who racked up 22 points and made 9-of-12 from the foul line. Yakubu and company made it a dead heat on the boards (38-37 in Concordia’s favor). Bethel (22-10) showed grit in rallying back to tie after falling behind by seven in the middle of the second half. The Threshers never managed to grab a lead down the stretch.
When times get tight, the Bulldogs know they can count on Smith and Schutte, both of whom have now played in eight career national tournament games. Schutte has scored at least 20 in six of those outings and achieved another major program record on Friday in rising to the top of the all-time rebound list (938 and counting). Schutte finished with a game-high 23 points (9-for-14 from the field) to go along with 10 boards. Meanwhile, Smith filled the stat sheet with 22 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and three blocked shots. Gaeth and Kulus chipped in with 10 points apiece. Kulus made 3-of-4 tries from long range on a day when Concordia struggled as a team (5-for-22) from the perimeter.
The growth the Bulldogs have experienced defensively allowed them to gut this one out. They held the Threshers to 40.6 percent shooting in the second half. Schutte, Smith and Jaxon Stueve each logged 30 or more minutes while helping Concordia squeak its way into the NAIA round of 32.
Said Limback, “God’s really blessed us with an opportunity to continue to play. We want to take advantage of that and be ready for a fun battle tomorrow night … You get to this point in the season, you’re going to go against multiple great players. (Yakubu) was fun to go against. He’s a great player.”
The Bulldogs have won their first-round national tournament game for the eighth time in program history. A spot in the national round of 16 and trip to Kansas City, Mo., will be on the line on Saturday when Concordia takes the court at 6 p.m. CT from the Collins Center on the Baker University campus. Third-seeded Baker protected its home court and defeated 14th-seeded Texas Wesleyan University, 72-58, in the second game in Baldwin City.