By: Alex Patt
River Forest, Il. The 2016 Concordia Invitational Tournament for the men ended with a nail-biting championship game between Concordia Wisconsin and Concordia Nebraska. The CIT trophy returned to Nebraska as the Bulldogs defeated the Falcons 86-85.
The two teams battled back and forth in front of a loud, capacity crowd in the Geiseman Gym. Nebraska led most of the game, but CUW was right with them the entire way. It was at the 4:31 mark of the 4th quarter when Wisconsin took a 80-78 lead. Nebraska came and grabbed the lead back, and was up by one with 1:03 to go.
After the two teams traded scoreless possessions, the championship came down to one more play with eight seconds left as CUW had the ball. The Falcons quickly moved the ball up court and at the buzzer, DeShawn Robinson put up a three-point shot attempt and missed to allow the Nebraska Bulldogs to win the game and the tournament.
Nebraska had three players with over 15 points: forward Robby Thomas scored 19, center Chandler Folkerts scored 24 and Eli Ziegler scored 17; the team’s overall field goal shooting was 56.6%. For the Falcons, Keith Kahlfeldt led the team in scoring with 20 and the team shot 43.9%.
Nebraska’s men have won their third CIT title since 2010, and will be hosting next year’s tournament in 2017.
