SEWARD, Neb. – Before looking ahead to a showdown with No. 3 Northwestern, the Concordia University, Nebraska Men’s Basketball team steamrolled its way through Mount Marty behind another monster outing from Tristan Smith. A 22-0 first-half run spurred the Bulldogs’ 89-62 blowout of the Lancers, who were beaten soundly on the boards. Fresh off being named GPAC Offensive Player of the Week, Smith finished with a game-high 27 points while dominating both ends of the floor.
Head Coach Ben Limback’s squad has streaked to eight-consecutive GPAC wins while improving to 9-3 in league play (14-4 overall). As a program, Concordia has won 52 of its last 57 home games.
“I thought first half we were incredible defensively and forced a lot of turnovers,” Limback said. “We really set the tone with a nice run there … Tristan’s in a rhythm right now. I think the only thing stopping him is when I get him a sub. At both ends, he just swallows guys up. He’s blocking shots at the rim and he’s scoring at the free throw line and off the dribble and kicking it out. Great timing too, because we have another big one Saturday.”
The key stretch occurred when Mount Marty went without a basket for nearly 10 minutes of game time as the Bulldogs hit the Lancers with the aforementioned 22-0 run. Zac Kulus sparked the surge with a trey at the 13:45 mark of the first half. Roughly five minutes and three Mount Marty timeouts later, Concordia owned a 32-10 lead. The onslaught came in large part due to intensity on the defensive end. The Bulldogs even got up on Marty with some full-court pressure at times.
Both Smith (27 points and 10 rebounds) and Noah Schutte (12 points and 10 rebounds) registered double-doubles. In an eye-popping back-to-back possession sequence early in the contest, Schutte elevated for a tip slam before Smith followed by throwing down an alley-oop off the dish from Elijah Gaeth. In filling out the stat sheet, Schutte blocked four shots, dropped three assists and swiped a pair of steals. Meanwhile, Kulus tossed in 16 points on the strength of 4-for-8 shooting from long range. Gaeth chipped in with eight points and five assists off the bench and Brad Bennett sniped nine points on three triples.
After some hiccups early this season, Concordia has found the level it expected of itself. Said Kulus, “Looking back, I’d say our defense has changed tremendously. At first we didn’t know our exact rotations – all our rotations were out of whack. Coach put an emphasis on it in practice, and we’ve really started to defend a lot better.”
Mount Marty (7-10, 4-7 GPAC) cut a 27-point deficit to 15 in the latter stages of the second half in one of its better stretches of the night. The Lancers were led by standout Tash Lunday and his 21-point, 10-rebound performance. A major reason for the lopsided final score was reflected in the rebounding – 38-21 in the Bulldogs’ favor. The shooting percentages were nearly even: 48.4 percent for Concordia and 47.8 percent for Mount Marty. Additionally, the Bulldogs also were plus-five in turnovers.
Said Limback, “Mount Marty does a good job. They pressure and they switch. I think Zac does a good job playing his speed. He got us going early from the 3-point lead when we needed to see something go in. He does a great job of shot-faking and guys were finding him in the second half. He was a huge lift off the bench tonight.”
Prior to tipoff, Schutte was honored for his achievement of ascending to the top of the program’s all-time scoring list one week earlier. He was greeted at center court by previous scoring king Jon Ziegler. Following Wednesday night’s efforts, Schutte has totaled 2,130 points for his career.
Next up will be a showdown with No. 3 Northwestern (17-1, 9-1 GPAC). The Bulldogs and Red Raiders will clash at 3:45 p.m. CT inside Friedrich Arena in the first meeting of the season between the two sides. Northwestern has fallen in each of its past six trips to Seward. In Wednesday's action, the Red Raiders suffered their first loss of the season in a 78-75 home defeat at the hands of rival Dordt.