(Lima, OH) – The Concordia Cardinals men's basketball team traveled to The University of Northwestern Ohio (UNOH) to take on the Racers Wednesday evening. The men's team fought hard in the first half, but the Racers ultimately pulled away to an 82-67 win.

Junior forward Nate Brighton led the team with 20 points in the loss. Senior guard Kip French had 12 points, and senior forward Colton Ritsema was third on the team with 8 points. Brighton and French both added 6 rebounds and 3 assists, while French also snagged 4 steals on the night.

The Cardinals bounced back from an early slow start with a three-pointer from Zackary Johnson, while French gave the team their first lead of the game on a layup. After the Johnson three, Concordia went on a 14-10 scoring run to take a 17-15 midway through the first half.

Matt Lockhart added a layup to give the Cardinals a 4 point lead, their largest lead of the half and the game. UNOH then went on a 9-3 scoring run to grab their largest lead of the half at 6 points. Brighton would help Concordia crawl back into the game with 10 first half points but the team would still trail UNOH 33-32 at halftime.

The Racers would use a huge start to the second half to jump out to a 20 point lead, which would be the largest lead of the game, and it would make the score 62-42 in favor of the Racers with 10 minutes to go in the game. UNOH went on a 29-10 scoring run while they jumped out to their 20 point advantage. 

Ritsema began to help Concordia make a dent in the deficit by draining a three-pointer. However, even with the Cardinals 25 points in the final 10 minutes of the game, it wasn't enough to avoid defeat. Brighton and French would lead the offensive barrage in the final scoring run of the game with 10 points and 8 points, respectively. 

The men's team will return home to the Cardinal Fieldhouse looking to get back in the win column against the University of Michigan-Dearborn on Saturday, January 21st at 3:00pm.