AZUSA, Calif. – To put Thursday night's big win for the Golden Eagles in perspective, consider the following points.
The last time the Concordia men's basketball team won at Azusa Pacific's gym, current point guard
Connor Gleason was eight years old, Barack Obama was still President of the United States, and the Chicago Cubs had still not won a World Series in over 100 years.
In fact, Concordia had not yet won its second national title in the sport and was in the midst of ramping up for a historic run to the 2012 NAIA National Championship.
Put all that history aside now as the current squad led by CUI head coach
Ken Ammann collected a hard-fought 59-58 victory over the Cougars in a game that went down to the final seconds.
Jaden Henderson sank two free throws to give the Golden Eagles the lead with under 10 seconds to play and a defensive stand on the final possession preserved the stressful victory.
Both defenses played extremely well and Concordia held APU to just 41 percent shooting on the night.
"I was proud of how we kept competing when our shots weren't falling," said CUI head coach
Ken Ammann. "We did not do that last weekend at Westmont. We played through everything tonight. We even built up a decent cushion with a couple minutes to go and nearly gave it away. Proud of how we fought the entire 40 minutes and found a way."
The Golden Eagles converted two more three-pointers than the Cougars and also enjoyed an advantage at the charity stripe. CUI went 14-of-15 at the free throw line, while APU missed six freebies.
Henderson finished with a team-high 15 points for Concordia and went 7-for-7 at the foul line.
Gleason added a dozen points (all on treys) and
Jayce Catchings provided 10 points and 10 rebounds for his third career double-double as a Golden Eagle. He recently had 19 and 10
in a huge road win at Vanguard and the 10 boards were just one off his career-high of 11 that
he collected against Cal State East Bay earlier this season.
Up next, Concordia returns home to host their rivals from Biola on Wednesday, Feb 12 at 7 p.m. The game follows the women's contest at 5 p.m. as a PacWest conference doubleheader.
CLICK HERE for the full CUI men's basketball schedule
Both the Golden Eagles and Eagles are vying for two of the six spots in the upcoming PacWest Conference Tournament which will be held in San Rafael up in Northern California and hosted by Dominican. As of Thursday afternoon, Biola is the No. 2 seed and the Golden Eagles are tied for the No. 6 spot with Westmont, who they split the season series with already this year.
CLICK HERE for the updated PacWest men's basketball standings
