The Cobbers were outscored 18-8 in the crucial stretch at the end of the game and fell to the Blazers 77-73. The loss ends the careers of the two Concordia seniors as they finish their season with a 19-5 overall mark. The Cobbers finished the regular season with a 17-3 record in conference play. The loss snaps Concordia's 15-game winning streak. It is also the team's first loss to an MIAC opponent at home in 2004-05.
St. Ben's advances to play Carleton in the conference championship game on Saturday. The Knights advanced to the MIAC title game for the fifth straight season by beating St. Mary's 67-51 in Northfield. The Blazers improve their overall record to 21-4.
Leading 65-59 with 6:38 left in the game, Concordia allowed St. Ben's to go on a 6-0 run and tie the game at 65-65 with 5:13 remaining. From there, the two teams traded leads twice more in the game and had the score tied on four different occasions. The final push of the game came at the 1:36 mark. With the score tied at 73-73, Katie Kempe hit a jumper for the Blazers to give them a 75-73 lead. The Cobbers had two chances to tie the game or take the lead, but were unable to hit on a pair of 3-point attempts by Pearson and Visness.
After Visness' miss, Concordia fouled Darby Noreen and she sank 1-of-2 free throws. Trailing 76-73 with 21 seconds left, Concordia worked the ball back to Visness who tried to the game with her sixth attempt from behind the arc. The ball caromed off the front of the rim and St. Ben's was able to grab the rebound. The Cobbers immediately fouled, and then Kempe put the game out of reach by sinking one of her two foul shots to push the lead to a two possession game at 77-73 with only eight seconds remaining.
Pearson fittingly put up the final shot of the game. Her desperation 3-point shot with three seconds to go fell harmlessly off the mark.
The game lacked the flow of a battle between two of the top six teams in the region. The two squads were whistled for 46 fouls and shot 62 free throws in the game. In the second half alone, there were 30 fouls called and 46 free throw attempts taken. In a 2:22 span from the 4:26 mark of the second half, five of the next six possessions by both teams resulted in trips to the free throw line.
Pearson finished her brilliant career by scoring a team-high 25 points and dishing off eight assists. Visness knocked down a pair of 3-point shots and finished with 14 points. Melanie Hageman was the only other member of the Cobbers to finish in double figures. She scored 13 points and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.
One of the pivotal points in the game was when Cobber junior post Tori Ehlert was whistled for her fourth foul at the 17:18 mark of the second half. Ehlert, who had averaged 10.75 points and 6.5 rebounds in her last four games, played only 13 minutes in the game and scored four points.
Anna Heikenen was the workhorse for the Blazers. The junior post player scored a game-high 29 points and collected six rebounds. Kempe was the only other St. Ben's player to score more than nine points. She had 11 points in the game - eight of which came in the second half.
Concordia shot 42.4% (14-of-33) from the floor in building a 37-30 lead at the break. The Cobbers cooled off in the second half, shooting only 34.8% (8-of-23), and finished the game by hitting on 39.3% (22-of-56) of their shots from the field.
St. Ben's had the exact opposite field percentage statistical line. They opened the game by shooting 38.5% (10-of-26) in the first half, and then improved to 58.3% (14-of-24) in the final 20 minutes. For the game, they knocked down 48.0% (24-of-50) of their shots from the floor.
The biggest statistical difference came in points scored in the paint. The Blazers held a decisive 26-18 edge in points scored in the paint area. St. Ben's outscored Concordia 20-8 in scoring from around the basket in the final period.
Newspaper Box Score College of St. Benedict vs Concordia College 02/23/05 7:30 at Moorhead, MN/Memorial Auditorium At Moorhead, MN/Memorial Auditorium COLLEGE OF ST. BENEDICT 77, CONCORDIA COLLEGE 73 COLLEGE OF ST. BENEDICT (17-4 MIAC/21-4) Anna Heikenen 8-12 13-17 29; Katie Kempe 3-6 4-6 11; Ellie Boone 4-4 1-1 9; Kim Johnson 3-4 2-3 8; Jen Dalhed 2-3 2-2 7; Laura Zwach 2-6 0-0 5; Darby Noreen 0-7 4-6 4; Tara Schloe 2-3 0-0 4; Justine Richels 0-5 0-0 0. Totals 24-50 26-35 77. CONCORDIA COLLEGE (17-4 MIAC/19-5) Mandy Pearson 7-22 10-10 25; Jamie Visness 5-11 2-2 14; Melanie Hageman 3-7 7-7 13; Anne Keeley 2-7 2-2 7; Amanda Levos 1-2 3-5 5; Tori Ehlert 2-4 0-0 4; Karie Visness 1-1 0-0 3; Sarah Krabbenhoft 1-1 0-1 2; Leanne White 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 22-56 24-27 73. College of St. Benedict....... 30 47 - 77 Concordia College............. 37 36 - 73 3-point goals-College of St. Benedict 3-16 (Jen Dalhed 1-1; Laura Zwach 1-4; Katie Kempe 1-3; Darby Noreen 0-3; Justine Richels 0-4; Kim Johnson 0-1), Concordia College 5-16 (Jamie Visness 2-6; Karie Visness 1-1; Anne Keeley 1-3; Mandy Pearson 1-6). Fouled out--College of St. Benedict-Jen Dalhed, Concordia College-Tori Ehlert. Rebounds-College of St. Benedict 29 (Anna Heikenen 6; Ellie Boone 6; Kim Johnson 6), Concordia College 34 (Melanie Hageman 7). Assists-College of St. Benedict 17 (Darby Noreen 5), Concordia College 11 (Mandy Pearson 8). Total fouls-College of St. Benedict 22, Concordia College 24. A-433