(February 20, 2008 - Ann Arbor, Mich.) -- As the regular season winds down, the Concordia men's basketball team knows each game is vitally important to build momentum as they look to make a long playoff run. On Wednesday night, the Cardinals had to fight back from a 10-point early second-half deficit to knock-off the Saints of Siena Heights 72-63. It was the seventh consecutive win over Siena Heights for the Cardinals, after dropping 40 of the first 41 games to the Saints.

 

The game started well for Concordia after two consecutive makes on the first two possessions. Up 4-0 and 44 seconds in the Saints head coach called a timeout to ignite his troops. The approach worked as Siena Heights put together a 10-point run themselves before Fernando Cardenas (Jr. - Paris, France) knocked down a free throw attempt to bring it to 10-5 Saints with 16:33 to play in the half.

 

Cardenas would finish with five points and two rebounds for Concordia.

 

Concordia would knot the game at 19-19 and the teams would exchange baskets until it was 29-29 with three minutes remaining. The Saints would finish the half strong as they would score 9 of 11 points to go the break up seven at 38-31.

 

Surprisingly, Concordia shot well in the first 20 minutes as they knocked down 46 percent of their shots. While the Saints didn't shoot as well overall, they hit four triples to the Cards zero to help propel them to the lead.

 

Brian Champine, who would finish with 23 points for the Saints, had 17 at the break.

 

The second half didn't look promising as Siena Heights continued to build on their lead as they built their largest margin of 10 with a 46-36 lead with 16:44 remaining.

 

But the Cards used the next 4:09 to put together an eight-point run themselves to cut their deficit to a bucket. Anthony Bates (Sr. - Detroit, Mich.) and Dennis Meaney (Fr. - Perry, Mich.) each scored four points on the run. Bates would finish with his second career double-double as he scored 15 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. Meaney added six points and five points.

 

Down four with a little more than a dozen minutes remaining, Concordia would use a 13-point run to retake the lead for good as they put nine points between them and the Saints at 57-48.  Marquis Turley (Fr. - Grand Rapids, Mich.) would nail three triples during the run to essentially suck the desire out the Saints. Turley would finish with a game-high 26 points for the Cards.

 

The two teams would play even up the rest of the way as the Cards would pick up the 72-63 victory.

 

The win did little to alter Concordia's position in the standings, as they had already clinched fifth place prior to the game. But it made things much more interesting for the Saints as they remain in a tie for sixth with Davenport at 3-10 in conference play. But the playoff picture is far from clear. Concordia (11-18, 7-6 WHAC) will more than likely travel to either Indiana Tech or Cornerstone for the first round of the playoffs. It stills remains a possibility that the top four teams all could finish with 10-4 records in the WHAC.

 

The Cardinals could be major players in making the latter happen as they finish the regular season at home Saturday afternoon against current league-leader Aquinas College. The Saints will definitely be motivated to win the conference outright, so the game should be an exciting conclusion to the regular season.