MEQUON, Wis. – There was a lot to celebrate for the Concordia Wisconsin men's basketball program on Wednesday night. The Falcons rumbled past Rockford with a 91-87 victory to improve to 11-10 on the year and 9-5 in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference.
Rockford grabbed the first run of the evening on Wednesday with an early 5-0 run to start the game.
The Birds swooped back into the game with a 6-0 run that was capped off by a Junior Casey Verhagen (Sheboygan, Wis.) layup off a steal from sophomore Luke Eggemeyer (Perryville, Mo.) to give the Falcons a 9-8 lead.
Rockford once again rallied and pushed the lead up to 19-13 with 13:24 left in the half. Casey Verhagen once again scored on back-to-back possessions to tie the game at 19 a minute later. With the basket, Verhagen scored his 1000th career point.
The Falcons carried the lead for a majority of the rest of the first half and Casey Verhagen was able to beat the buzzer and gave the Falcons a 47-42 lead at halftime.
The Blue and White were earning the whistles to start the second half and pushed the lead up to nine points on four different occasions, but halfway through the half, the Regents struck back and reclaimed the lead at 70-69 with a three-point basket.
Senior Logan Landers (Cedarburg, Wis.) gave the Falcons the lead back with a pair of free throws and then recorded his 500th career rebound on the next defensive possession.
Trailing 79-80, junior Jacob Christjohn (Milwaukee, Wis.) gave the Falcons the lead for good with a three-point basket at 82-80. The Regents cut the CUW lead to 89-87, but free throws iced the game for Concordia.
Casey Verhagen led the contest with a season-best 34 points and six assists.
Logan Landers continued his double-double tour on Wednesday night with 26 points and 13 rebounds.
Luke Eggemeyer stuffed the stat sheet with nine points, nine rebounds, six assists and two blocks. The six assists are a career-best and he also tied his best rebounding performance.
The Falcons look to continue their winning ways when they face a familiar foe on Saturday afternoon at St. Norbert.
