Basketball Recap: Concordia Lutheran Comes Up Short

Concordia Lutheran saw some tournament action on Friday. They took a 90-85 hit to the loss column at the hands of the Prep Student Academic Training Academy Panthers. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game on Thursday (67), the Crusaders still had to take the loss.

Despite the loss, Concordia Lutheran saw an underclassman step up: sophomore Banner Carlson went 11 of 20 on his way to 28 points in addition to eight boards and six assists. The dominant performance gave Carlson a new career-high in assists. The team also got some help courtesy of Ghaven Mittal, who went 6 for 10 from beyond the arc on his way to 20 points.

Even though they lost, Concordia Lutheran smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 11 offensive rebounds. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least eight offensive boards in five consecutive matches.

Concordia Lutheran has been struggling recently as they've lost five of their last six games, which put a noticeable dent in their 4-13 record this season. That patch can't be blamed on the team's offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 63.2 points per game. As for Prep Student Academic Training Academy, the win got them back to even at 1-1.

Concordia Lutheran didn't take long to hit the court again: they've already played their next contest, a 104-75 defeat against Houston HomeSchool on the 20th. As for Prep Student Academic Training Academy, they also wasted no time getting back out on the court and have already played their next matchup, a 68-60 loss against Nolan Catholic on the 20th.