Panthers halt slide with 68-42 win over Irish
A season-high nine players scored, including four in double figures, as the Concordia Panthers snapped a three-game losing skid with a 68-42 North Central Kansas League victory over winless Chapman Friday night in the Concordia Junior-Senior High School gymnasium.
Cav Carlgren led the balanced Concordia attack with 16 points and also grabbed 10 rebounds.
Tyler Hobrock scored 13 points.
Aceyn Cash and Payton Breese added 10 points each.
Jonathan Turner came off the bench to score seven points and pulled down seven rebounds.
“It was nice to get a lot of kids in. Those kids have worked hard in practice,” Concordia coach Derek Holmes said.
Concordia, now 7-3 overall and 3-3 in league play, started the season 6-0 before suffering three consecutive NCKL losses.
The Panthers built a 44-17 halftime lead on Chapman and were not challenged over the final two quarters.
“I know Chapman is struggling but you still have to play well against teams that are struggling,” Holmes said. “I thought we really came out with great energy and started to get our running game going again, got out in transition and had a really good first half.”
The game was tied at 2-2 in the early going when Concordia got a three-point play by Carlgren, a three-point basket by Cash and a bucket by Hobrock to go on top to stay, 10-2.
Chapman, 0-9 overall and 0-6 in the league, would get as close as five points, 11-6.
Cash and Breese teamed up to score nine points in less than two minutes to push Concordia’s lead to 20-9.
Ian Suther hit a three for Chapman to make it a 20-9 game.
A basket by Cash, who hit his first four shots of the game, put the Panthers on top 22-9 heading into the second quarter.
Concordia opened the second period with a 13-2 spurt, and led 35-11.
Suther, who led Chapman with 14 points, hit another three.
The Panthers scored the next seven points, five by Turner, to go up 42-14.
Suther hit a three for the Irish, and Taye Retter knocked down a jumper for Concordia to make it 44-17 at halftime.
The Panthers would outscore Chapman 12-3 in the first four minutes of the second half, and it was a 56-20 game.
The Irish would double up Concordia 10-5 over the final four minutes of the third quarter but still trailed, 62-30.
With a running clock in the fourth quarter, Holmes was able to get everyone some playing time as the Panthers cruised to the win.
Joey Henderson handed out eight assists for Concordia.
The Panthers hit 28 of 59 field goal attempts for 47 percent. They were nine of 12 from the free throw line.
Concordia will begin a stretch of four games in six days when they take on Wichita South in the opening round of the Salina Invitational Tournament at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at Salina Central High School.
The final two rounds of the tournament will be played Friday and Saturday.
The Panthers are then on the road for a rematch with Abilene the following Tuesday.
“The next four games is always our toughest stretch of the year with the SIT three days in a row and then you go to Abilene the next Tuesday. You are going to have four tough games in a six day stretch. So it was definitely important to get some momentum going into that,” Holmes said.
CHAPMAN (42)
Picking 2-0-1 5, Dauterive 0-0-1 0, Suther 5-0-1 14, Cavanaugh 2-0-2 4, Klukas 0-0-1 0, Miles 1-0-4 2, Langvardt 3-3-3 9, Holm 3-2-3 8. Totals: 15-5-16 42.
CONCORDIA (68)
Henderson 2-0-0 4, Carlgren 6-4-1 16, Garcia 1-0-1 2, T. Retter 1-0-0 2, P. Retter, 1-2-0 4, Cash 4-0-2 10, Breese 4-1-0 10, Hobrock 6-1-5 13, Turner 3-1-0 7. Totals: 28-9-9 68.