NU's Nemanja Grujicic gets to the rim past CU's Jesse Armstrong.
Northwest Rebounds with Victory Over Concordia
KIRKLAND, Wash. – No. 21 Northwest University rebounded from Friday night’s loss to No. 14 Warner Pacific with a 78-65 victory over Concordia tonight in Cascade Conference play.
Concordia would lead only once in the game tonight as Robbie Jackson would drill a 3 pointer to open the game to give the Cavaliers a 3-0 lead. NU would then outscore CU 8-0 as Michael Greene would score in the paint and Michael Russo would hit two consecutive 3 pointers to put the Eagles in front 8-3 and for good. NU’s Brett Skogstad would drop a trey with 14:53 on the clock to increase the Eagle lead to 11 at 19-8, but Kory Kirwin would hit a jumper to complete a 5-0 CU run to make it a 19-13 ball game with 12:37 remaining in the half. Northwest would then go on an 8-2 run as Greene’s jumper would increase their lead to 27-15 with 9 minutes left in the half. NU would grow their lead to 15 as Ryan McIntosh would hit another 3 pointer and Greene would get into the paint once again to make it a 17 point lead, 39-22, with 1:59 on the clock. Concordia’s Kirwin would tip in Willy Ligon's miss with 9 seconds to go as Northwest would take a 39-24 lead heading into the locker room.
Northwest would maintain their lead the entire second half as Concordia would manage to close to within 10 points, 67-57 with 2:31 left in the game but NU would go 9 for 13 from the free throw line to close out their 15
th victory of the season.
Northwest (15-4, 5-2 CCC) was led by Michael Greene’s (Bellingham, Wash.) game high 20 points, 13 rebounds, his 8
th double-double of the season. Michael Russo (Sammamish, Wash.) scored 19 points and grabbed 8 rebounds. Ryan McIntosh (Puyallup, Wash.) 11 points; Ryan Dornik (Vancouver, Wash.) and Brett Skogstad (Allyn, Wash.) 10 points each to round out the scoring. Northwest held a 46-36 rebounding margin and shot 42% for the game.
Concordia’s (7-9, 2-5 CCC) leading scorer, Adam Herman, scored 19 points and added 8 rebounds. Robbie Jackson (Woodinville, Wash.) contributed 10 points while Willy Ligon and Kory Kirwin each scored 8 points for the Cavaliers. Concordia hit 24 of 61 from the floor for 40% shooting on the night and made 12 of 18 free throws for 67%.
Said John Van Dyke following the game, “I thought we played a very good game tonight and I was proud of the ownership of the team our players showed tonight. I thought we made some real improvements. It wasn’t one of our best shooting efforts tonight, but we rebounded well and played solid defensively.”