Fifth-Seeded Concordia Advances to Finals

Concordia began the Golden State Athletic Conference men’s basketball tournament with a shortage of victories, but not confidence.

Now fifth-seeded Concordia has something to go with its attitude after defeating second-seeded Biola, 69-63, in the semifinals Saturday in front of 1,200 at Whittier College.

“It’s not an upset when the underdog thinks it’s been the better team all along,” Concordia Coach Greg Marshall said.

Said junior forward Kalim Scott: “They picked us dead last, and now we’re one of the top two teams.”

Actually, the preseason coaches’ poll picked Concordia seventh--second to last--but there’s no quibbling with the fact that the Eagles will be playing for the conference title against top-seeded Azusa Pacific Tuesday at Whittier College.

Concordia’s victory Saturday was a major surprise, perhaps to everyone but Concordia. Biola (27-5), ranked ninth in the NAIA, was the conference’s hottest team, winner of its last seven games, including an 80-57 pounding of Concordia in the regular-season finale March 1.

However Concordia players believe they are better than their 15-16 record would indicate. “I think we’ve always been a really good team,” freshman point guard Josh Giles said. “We just had problems with playing together.

“We’ve had games where we put it together and when we do that we can be really good.”

Saturday’s was certainly one of those games. Concordia got strong performances from Scott (15 points, 10 rebounds), senior guard Rick Haywood (15 points, six assists, five steals), senior forward Greg O’Hagan (13 points, seven rebounds, six assists) and Giles (12 points) and controlled much of the game.

Concordia held Biola without a field goal for nearly seven minutes in the second half and led 63-52 with 4 minutes 11 seconds left.

Biola, however, didn’t go down without a fight. It went on an 11-2 run and trailed, 65-63, with 35 seconds left. Then a Concordia turnover gave Biola the ball back, and Biola worked it inside to Matt Garrison, the 6-foot-9 conference player of the year.

Garrison’s bank shot from three feet rolled off the rim with 15 seconds left. Concordia’s Paul Bettencourt made two free throws, then after a missed Biola shot, Scott punctuated the victory with a fast-break dunk at the buzzer.