The Bulldogs had two shots at sending the game into overtime in the final seconds, but three-point attempts by Nik Summers and Tommy Stolhandske were off the mark.
Stolhandske led the Bulldogs with 25 points, and Summers added 18. Matt Nelson and Will Hudson contributed 16 and 11 points, respectively.
Concordia-Austin (5-18, 5-15 ASC West) received 29 points from Keith Darden and 26 from George Freeman. The Tornados made 63 percent of their second-half shots and shot 54.2 percent from the field for the entire game.
Concordia-Austin opened a 10-point lead in the second half before TLU stormed back, cutting the Tornados’ advantage to one, 86-85, on a three-pointer from Summers with 1:31 to play in the game.
TLU stopped the Tornados on their next possession and had a shot at the lead, but Summers’ next three-pointer bounced off the rim.
Darden converted a layup for the Tornados with 11 seconds on the clock to give his team a three-point lead.
The loss dropped TLU to 12-11 overall and to 11-9 in the American Southwest Conference West Division. TLU, once 10-2 in the ASC West, has dropped seven of its last eight games overall.
The Bulldogs are two games behind Mary Hardin-Baylor, which defeated Schreiner on Saturday, for the fourth and final tournament spot given to an ASC West team.
Four teams from the ASC West and four from the ASC East Division qualify for the conference’s postseason tournament. TLU must win its last two games, home contests with Sul Ross State and Howard Payne, and have Mary Hardin-Baylor drop both of its remaining two games, road contests at McMurry and Hardin-Simmons.
Should the Bulldogs and Crusaders tie for fourth-place, the ASC’s tiebreaker formula would go into effect. TLU and UMHB split their two regular-season meetings, so the tiebreaker would be determined by the teams’ records against the division’s top teams – the teams’ records against the first-place team, then if still equal the record against the second-place team, and if still tied the record against the third-place team.
But before the Bulldogs’ can even hope for a tiebreaker scenario to be worked out, they must stop their late-season slide. The only bright spot for the Bulldogs is that their final two games are at home, where the Bulldogs are 8-1 this year. TLU hosts Sul Ross State at 7:30 p.m. this Thursday and Howard Payne at 3 p.m. this Saturday.
Newspaper Box Score Texas Lutheran vs Concordia University at Austin 2/12/05 3:00pm at Austin, TX At Austin, TX CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY AT AUSTIN 88, TEXAS LUTHERAN 85 TLUMEN (12-11, 11-9) Tommy Stolhandske 9-17 7-12 25; Nik Summers 8-12 0-1 18; Matt Nelson 5-6 6-6 16; Will Hudson 4-9 1-2 11; Hunter Holsonback 2-5 1-2 5; Jason Grohman 1-1 3-5 5; Jason Morales 2-4 0-0 4; Jerrod Carpenter 0-1 1-2 1; Kevin Glienke 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 31-55 19-30 85. CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY AT AUSTIN (5-18, 5-15) Keith Darden 11-21 5-5 29; George Freeman 10-16 1-3 26; Valentino Maxwell 5-9 3-4 16; Mike Moore 3-3 3-4 10; Brandon Graves 2-4 0-0 4; Geoff Harner 1-2 0-0 3; Jack Montagna 0-1 0-0 0; Greg Favry 0-2 0-0 0; Oscar Garcia 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 32-59 12-16 88. Texas Lutheran........................ 47 38 - 85 Concordia University at Austin 49 39 - 88 3-point goals-TLUMEN 4-13 (Will Hudson 2-4; Nik Summers 2-5; Hunter Holsonback 0-1; Jason Morales 0-2; Tommy Stolhandske 0-1), Concordia University at Austin 12-23 (George Freeman 5-8; Valentino Maxwell 3-5; Keith Darden 2-6; Geoff Harner 1-1; Mike Moore 1-1; Brandon Graves 0-2). Fouled out--TLUMEN-None, Concordia University at Austin-Jack Montagna. Rebounds-TLUMEN 33 (Will Hudson 6; Matt Nelson 6; Tommy Stolhandske 6), Concordia University at Austin 28 (George Freeman 7). Assists-TLUMEN 17 (Jason Morales 6), Concordia University at Austin 22 (Keith Darden 9). Total fouls-TLUMEN 16, Concordia University at Austin 26. A-300