Fresno, Calif. - The Eagles took a road trip up to the Sunbirds of Fresno Pacific looking to bounce back from their last match against APU.
Concordia conquered what they sought out to accomplish and took the victory over FPU 86-75.
The Green and Gold are now 12-4 overall with a 6-1 PacWest Conference record, keeping them the top spot in the conference.
In the first half Concordia started off slow, seemingly shaking off some of the rust from the long travel the day before.
The Eagles did not gain their first lead of the night until the 11th minute mark in the first half. On back-to-back possessions the Irvine squad forced two turnovers by the Sunbirds, that led to thunderous dunks by Chicago native, Rob McCoy and last seasons PacWest Freshman of the Year, Kayle Knuckles.
CUI battled throughout the half but FPU did not back down after the two slams and continued to hold on to their narrow lead at the half. The Irvine squad came up big and took some momentum into the break after a defensive stand and a fastbreak dunk by Darius Lee to cut the deficit. The Sunbirds secured a two-point lead into the break.
Second half action was underway and the Eagles jumped on Fresno Pacific and never looked back. Just two minutes into the half Concordia took the lead at 43-41 and remained in front through the final whistle.
The Green and Gold had four players in double figures in the point column. Redshirt senior, Mike Mellinger had a smooth 12 points off the bench in route to the victory. Mellinger's presence on the floor was contagious in the second half and gave the Eagles a much needed spark.
"The team was looking to overturn a bad loss at APU and you could tell that everyone was locked in and ready to compete tonight," said Mellinger. "We have a lot of guys that can takeover a game and it is great to see our guys be aggressive and let it loose."
The other three double-digit scorers for the squad were McCoy (12), Jamel White (10) who also had a game-high seven assists and Andre Green (17).
Green's team-leading 17 points gave him enough points to reach a PacWest Conference career of over 1,000 points in the victory over FPU.
"We knew we were going to have to bring all the focus and energy we could in order to get back on track tonight," said Green. "It feels good to know that we can respond after a tough loss. Hitting 1,000 points during the victory feels great! I have spent four years at this level in the PacWest, and it is cool to see all the work I have put in pay off."
Although it was a historic night for Green, it was an all-around effort for the Eagles as Jalen Sanders and Cameron English each had nine points and Knuckles had eight points and a game high nine rebounds.
"After playing so poorly last Thursday we really needed to turn the momentum by competing better tonight and we did," said head coach Ken Ammann. "Fresno has a lot of dangerous players and they are tough to beat at home. We got a lot of stops in the second half that turned into points for us. Everyone played hard and gave us good minutes."
The Eagles will return to action against Biola University on Thursday, Jan. 16th at 7:30 p.m. at the CU Arena in the team's "Code Yellow" game sponsored by The Habit Burger Grill.
For the full schedule of the Green and Gold men's basketball team, click here.
