Carroll trailed by six points with 1:49 remaining in the game but made several key defensive stops to set up Toshner’s heroics, including a steal by senior guard James Johnson with 1:19 to play. Free throws by Johnson (at 1:19) and guard Buck Colomy with 39-seconds remaining in the game knotted the score at 69.
“This wasn’t one of our better games, especially mentally with a lot of breakdowns. To our team’s credit, starting with Johnson’s steal and free throws, we were able to find a way to win,” said head coach David Schultz. “That’s a senior make a big play when it matters.”
After a failed three-point attempt by the Falcons, Carroll gathered the rebound and called a timeout with 4.7 seconds remaining. The speedy Johnson drove the length of the court and lofted a cross court alley oop that Toshner softly guided into the basket just before the horn sounded.
“That’s not a lot of time to do something so we tried to get something going up court. We ran Drury [Nathan] through the lane and Concordia had him well covered. That opened up the back side for Toshner and Joshndon did a great job of finding him,” said Schultz.
The Pioneers went into halftime with a 39-28 lead but the Falcons consistently knocked down three’s in the final 20-minutes to eventually take the late lead. Concordia hit 10-of-18 three point attempts, including 5-of-9 in the second half, while Carroll was 0-of-9 in the second half from three-point land.
“We didn’t play well but you have to give some of the credit to Concordia,” said Schultz. “We didn’t play good team defense or offense but the sign of a good team is finding a win when things look bleak.”
Toshner was 12-of-15 from the field and grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds while Johnson ended with a game-high eight assists. Senior Jason Scheper chipped in with 10 points and five rebounds.
Concordia was led by Andy Becker and Matt Peets with 16 points each. Peets also recorded a game-high 12 rebounds.
Carroll, currently ranked 35th according to the latest D3hoops.com poll, returns to action Dec. 17 when they host UW-Oshkosh, currently ranked 14th. The Titans were ranked 2nd in the preseason poll but have fallen to 14th after two early-season losses. Tip-off for UW-Oshkosh at Carroll game is slated for 7:00 p.m. at Carroll’s Van Male Fieldhouse.