NEWS RELEASE FROM WILLIAM CAREY UNIVERSITY
Kansas City, Mo.-#12 William Carey University was the victim of a three
point barrage as they fell to the defending national champions Concordia
University (Ca.), 92-86 in first round action at the 2013 Buffalo Funds- NAIA
Division 1 Men's Basketball National Championship.
With the loss WCU finishes the season at 25-6.
"Concordia is a good team and they shot the ball really well today.
Their experience of being out here so many times helped them early on. We
regrouped and really got after them but they made the shots they needed to down
the stretch, "said WCU head coach Steve
Knight.
Concordia came out rolling connecting on four of their first five three
point attempts as they opened the game with 16-3 run. Trailing 32-15 with 8:20
left in the first half the Crusaders made their first significant move of the
morning as they used a 12-3 run to cut the lead to 35-27 with five minutes left
in the half. Concordia pushed the lead back to 12 but buckets by Jeremiah
Dunnings and Jamal Doss cut the lead to 45-37 at the half.
In the second half WCU cut the lead to four but Concordia again used the
three ball to extend the lead back twelve midway thru the half. The Crusaders
refused to go away and Jamal
Doss' slam dunk cut the lead 67-61 with 8:58 to play.
Concordia again extended the lead back to nine points but again the
Crusaders clawed their way back and Daron
Bell's old fashioned three point play made it a four point game with three
minutes left.
Down 86-77 with a minute to play Kelvin
Nixon reeled off five straight points to cut the lead to 86-82 however
Concordia did what was needed as they went 4 for 4 at the foul line to put the
game away.
"That was a very good team we just beat. They didn't win 25 games
for nothing. It was a very hard matchup for us, luckily we got off to a
tremendous start. I'm really proud of our preparation, because our guys came
out and played really, really hard. Almost every game in this tournament, one
team's gotten off to an early lead and the other team is able to mount a
comeback. We did a good job of making enough plays to stay ahead of them. They
were surging the whole game," said Concordia head coach Ken Amman.
"Being down early wasn't frustrating we just buckled down played hard
and kept fighting. Things just didn't turn out our way," said WCU junior
guard Jeremiah Dunnings.
Dunnings led four Crusaders in double figures with a tournament high 35
points. Daron Bell finished with 16 points and Jamal
Doss capped his WCU career with a 14 point 10 rebound performance. Kelvin
Nixon finished with 10 points.
