(Winona Lake, IN) The Cardinals took to the road on a five game win streak to take on the Grace College Lancers who are receiving votes in the NAIA. Concordia broke the Lancers' full court press, pounded the paint, and limited the Lancers to low percentage shots on their way to a 74-64 win for their sixth in a row.
Katie Snow scored eight points on the night, passing the 1,000 point threshold in her successful Cardinal career. Tris'styn Williams put up a career high 26 points, with J'may Simmons tallying 16.
Grace College opened up the game with four straight points, but Tris'styn Williams answered with four of her own as Concordia started to exploit the paint with their frontcourt players in J'may Simmons and Asaria Turman. It wasn't until five minutes into the quarter that Katie Snow was able to score with a three pointer, putting her over 1,000 career points as a Cardinal. Simmons and Williams helped the Cards maintain a small lead after the first.
The second quarter featured Tris'styn Williams tearing up the Lancer defense as the junior put up 10 points in the period. Grace only made four shots in the second period, but remained in the game as three of those field goals were triples. Concordia took an eight point lead into halftime.
In the third period, the Cardinals expanded upon their lead by drawing fouls and pulling in offensive rebounds. The Lancers attempted to claw their way back into the game with three pointers, but were unsuccessful in doing so. The only thing that prevented the Cardinals from fully busting the game open were turnovers, some of which came from the Lancer press. By the end of the quarter, Concordia was up by 12, scoring all of their points in the paint and continuing to outrebound Grace on the offensive boards.
Grace fell back to a 17 point deficit at one point in the fourth quarter due to more of Concordia's offensive attack down low. Yet, the Lancers were able to bring it back to a ten point game, forcing Cardinal errors from their full court press and three point shooting. When Concordia was able to break the press, they often found wide open shots underneath the basket which the Cards took advantage of, giving them some more breathing room in the waning minutes of the contest resulting in the Cardinal win.
The Cards will be off until after Christmas as their next game will be at Miami-Hamilton. The game will be on December 30th at 5:30 pm.
