Title Chase Finished Off With Blowout of Lancers, 87-64

Box Score 

(3/11/08 - Men's Basketball) IRVINE - After earning separate GSAC regular season and tournament titles in its history, top-seeded Concordia locked up its first sweep of the GSAC spoils with an emphatic 87-64 win over #3-seeded California Baptist, Tuesday evening in the GSAC Tournament championship game.

A jam-packed CU Arena with a capacity crowd of over 1,200 had plenty of fans on both sides who had the venue at a fever pitch as the ball went up for the tip-off. Within nine minutes of the opening plays, the outcome of the game was all but decided.

Just eight days ago, the same two teams played a hard-fought game that saw the Eagles clinch their first outright GSAC title with a 78-67. In the team's first meeting in Riverside, the Lancers handed the Eagles one of their four losses on the season. Neither of those games looked remotely like the one that played out on Tuesday evening.

The Eagles scored the first seven points of the game, scored 10-straight after a three-pointer by Mark Roussin, then tore off another 8-straight points to build an improbable 25-5 lead at the 11:36 mark of the opening stanza.

"It was definitely unexpected," said head coach Ken Ammann, who locked up his third GSAC Tournament title in seven seasons. "We've had some tough games against them this year and they're a hard team to play against. We just played extremely efficient, we got off to a great start and never looked back."

As dominating as the Eagles were early on, they still missed 3-of-4 shots to open the game. A three-pointer by Ryan Read at the 15:38 mark started a stretch where the Eagles hit 7-of-8 shots. Meanwhile, the defense forced seven turnovers and limited the Lancers to 2-of-8 shooting.

In stark contrast to their semifinal win over Point Loma Nazarene when the Eagles were outrebounded, 50-34, and gave up 21 second-chance points, Concordia dominated the boards in the first half. While the Lancers pulled down just 11 total rebounds, the Eagles managed 13 on the offensive end alone and had 22 total for 12 second chance points.

"It was a great feeling (to celebrate with the fans)," said senior guard Adam Greenaway, who has seen extended minutes at the point in the absence of Keith Lawrence over the past few weeks. "My first season here we were a .500 team and a lot of the new guys don't know the kind of effort it takes to get here. We knew we were the best team in the conference, we wanted to prove that and I think we made a statement."

Back-to-back three-pointers by Read saw the Eagles stretch their lead to 31-8 less than 10 minutes into the game before the Lancers begin to find some offensive rhythm. The problem for the Lancers was that they had few answers for the Eagles on the opposite end of the floor. Concordia kept on the front foot and used a fourth 1st-half three-pointer by Read to build a 50-21 lead with 1:07 before the half.

"I don't need too much room to shoot and if I see the space, I'm going to put it up," said Read, who led the GSAC in scoring in his junior season at The Master's. "Our fans were huge for us. Once I hit that first three, it got bigger and bigger and our team put in a great effort finding me tonight. We came out with the mindset that we wanted to take this game to them for the first 20 minutes. We did that, we came out with our pressure and we've won games all year long with our defense."

Things did not get any better for the Lancers in the opening moments of the second half as Read stepped out and hit another three-pointer. California Baptist head coach Tim Collins used 11 different players in the first half and 12 overall, but few combinations were able to provide any consistent results.

For Read, on the other hand, he continued his torrid postseason in which he has hit just about everything he has hoisted toward the rim. The all-GSAC guard had his third-straight game, fifth in the last seven and 8th overall this season with six treys, finishing with a game-high 24 points. During the GSAC Tournament, Read has averaged 23.7 points per game.

"Every night he's just such a weapon," said Ammann about Read, who joined the Eagles last season and redshirted during the team's run to the NAIA Tournament championship game. "He's a complete player. When he got here, he was always a great offensive player. He's worked on his whole game and he's a great competitor. He came here to help us win a league championship and we've done that. He's been a great addition in every way to our program."

The lead grew to as much as 35 after a pair of free throws by Rafael Da Silva at the 12:11 mark. The lead never dropped below the final margin of 23 points as the Eagles were able to get injured players Josh Kramer and Keith Lawrence a few minutes in preparation for the national tournament while Michael Johnson and Spencer Burns also got their turns on the floor.

"I was really proud of our guys for being mentally tough. I think we survived the long marathon and we're hitting our stride. It's a good feeling to go to the tournament with a lot of momentum. We're one of 6-10 teams with a good chance of winning the national championship and hopefully we can play well back there."

Da Silva added 16 points while Tyler Gottstein came off the bench to tally 13 points and match a season-high with 13 rebounds. Ben Smith continued his improved play by hitting all four of his shots, including a pair of three-pointers, to finish with 10 points while pulling down five rebounds.

Roussin, the GSAC Player of the Year, led California Baptist (23-8) with 19 points, 8 rebounds, 5 blocked shots and 4 rebounds. Despite the loss, the Lancers still earned the GSAC's second automatic berth to the national tournament. Carl Ross added 13 points off the bench while Cernin hit a trio of three-pointers and finished with 11 points.

Concordia (28-4) now awaits its first round opponent in the Buffalo Funds-2008 NAIA Men's Basketball Championship, running March 19-25 at the Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo. The official bracket will be released by the NAIA no later than 3:00 p.m., and will be available on the Concordia website shortly after its release.