Ann Arbor, Mich. – The men's basketball squad wrapped up the regular season this afternoon (Feb. 24) in a close matchup against the Concordia Cardinals. Aquinas rallied late, but the hosts held on for a 72-67 victory.

The results drops Aquinas to 13-15 with a 10-12 conference standing. Ultimately, this result had no impact on the final conference standings. The Saints will remain the number seven seed and will take on the number two seed to kick off the WHAC tournament.

Concordia 72, Aquinas 67

The start of the contest was exceptionally evenly matched as neither team held more than a four-point lead over the first 15 minutes of the game. The two teams had 15 lead changes in 15 minutes and it wasn't until a nine-point Concordia run that CUAA had a 36-27 advantage with two minutes to go in the half.

However, a Jared Lary layup and two deep splashes from Jacob Howard had the Saints back within one heading into the halftime locker rooms.

The Cardinals started to break away as the second half got underway. A dunk from Mark Devries capped off a nine-point Concordia run that saw the hosts take the game's first double-digit lead. Threes from Donovan Brown-Boyd and Howard cut the deficit back down to four, but CUAA maintained a multi-possession lead.

With just four minutes left to play, CUAA took its largest lead of the night to go ahead 67-56. However, chaos ensued towards the final buzzer. Tommy Gregwer scored a three and then Samuel Medendorp forced a turnover that led to a fastbreak dunk for Lary. The Cardinals proceeded to turn the ball over again and, after an offensive rebound from Brown-Boyd, Howard scored another three to bring AQ within two with 45 seconds left on the clock. The Saints went from trailing by double-digits to one possession in just over a minute.

Unfortunately, a foul on AQ with the Concordia shot clock winding down effectively iced the game. CUAA scored both free throws and Aquinas was unable to complete its last-minute heroics.

By the Numbers

AQ saw a massive contribution from the bench today as the Saints outscored Concordia 37-4 on bench points. AQ also had more points off turnovers (20-9) and points in the paint (30-28).

The difference in the game occurred in the rebounds and free throws. Concordia out-boarded Aquinas 36-28 and outscored the Saints from the free-throw line. AQ had just five free throws all game and scored one while CUAA shot 17-22 from the charity stripe.

Gregwer and Howard led the team in scoring as they each posted 12 points – a career-high number for Howard. They each scored all their points from three and grabbed one rebound for an uncannily similar stat line.

Medendorp was the only other AQ player to crack double-digits as he scored ten points on 5-5 shooting with four rebounds, two assists, three blocks, and a steal.

Up Next

The Saints play visitors to kick off the WHAC quarterfinals on Thursday (Feb. 29) at 7:30 p.m. Their opponent will be announced later this weekend.