IRVINE, Calif. – A steal and a dazzling dunk by Charlie Dalton and a timely three-pointer by Kaden Minter helped the Concordia Golden Eagles lock down an 85-73 victory over Cal Lutheran to improve to 3-1.
 
Concordia had a balanced attack on offense with six different players finishing in double figures.
 
Jayce Catchings led the way with 16 points and an eye-opening block at the rim late in the second half. He shot a superb 8-for-9 from the free throw line as well.
 
Sophomore sparkplug Charlie Dalton added 15 points and a team-high eight rebounds along with three steals. Kaden Minter contributed 11 points and point guard Connor Gleason also made some big buckets while shooting 5-for-10 from the floor for 12 points.
 
Jaden Henderson scored eight of Concordia's first 14 points by mostly going to his midrange game. He finished with 10 points, five rebounds, four assists and no turnovers.
 
Dalton and Jackson Tucker helped set the tone by hustling for 50-50 balls.  A steal and a dunk by Dalton midway through the second half fired up the home crowd.
 
A sweet drive and dish by Tucker to Joseph Locandro was part of a 7-0 run that stretched the CUI lead to 66-47. That 19-point advantage was the largest of the night for the Golden Eagles.
 
But the pace at which Cal Lutheran plays kept the visitors in the game and the Kingsmen cut the lead to five at one point.
 
But CUI found Minter for a huge three-pointer moments after he had just missed one from behind the arc, and that effectively silenced any thoughts of a comeback by the Kingsmen.
 
The Kingsmen love to push the ball up the court immediately and they thrive on taking – and making – a lot of threes. Cal Lutheran made seven treys in the first half and finished just under 40 percent from downtown for the game. But they cooled off a bit in the second half and CUI finished the game shooting a healthy 52 percent overall which helped offset that initial discrepancy.
 
"That's a really hard team to beat," said CUI head coach Ken Ammann. "Great game for us to guard an experienced group like that who can score in many ways and knows how to win. The game got dicey like it did down the stretch two nights ago, so I'm proud of our guys fighting to finish the game better than we did before. Need to keep getting better at that. But that's a very good Cal Lutheran team."
 
Cal Lutheran plays at the NCAA DIII level and expects to challenge for the conference crown in its league as well.  

The two schools had not played each other in men's basketball since the 1999-2000 season, making this the first win for Concordia over Cal Lutheran in 25 years. CUI is now 5-7 all-time in the series.
 
Next up for CUI is a home date against Cal State Dominguez Hills this Thursday, Nov. 21 at 5:00 p.m. The Toros and Golden Eagles are both in the first Top 10 regional rankings that came out last week.
 
CLICK HERE for the full CUI men's basketball schedule