In what was a wildly-entertaining, frenetically-paced showdown between two super athletic teams, Cal State San Marcos men's basketball came up just short of upsetting the #1-ranked team in the NAIA on Tuesday night, losing at home to Concordia University (CA) 92-88.

The Cougars drop to 5-5 on the season.  Concordia improves to 9-0.

Facing a team that averages well over 90 points per game and has defeated a tough slate of opponents by an average of nearly 25 points this year, Cal State San Marcos had two options.  The Cougars could look to take the air out of the ball, slow the game down, and look to grind out a win; or they could throw caution to the wind, match Concordia's tempo, and bring all their ammunition to a shootout.

Coach Jim Saia and his staff chose the latter option, and it very, very nearly worked.

CSUSM had the #1 team on its heels for a fair portion of the game Tuesday night.  Despite stretches of hot shooting from the Eagles that built a 14-point first half lead, the Cougars always seemed to have an answer.  Down 10 with 2:41 left in the first half, a Jacob Ranger three followed by a steal leading to a Tim Steed fast break layup cut the lead in half.  After a miss, A.J. Chamberlain grabbed the board and took it coast-to-coast to cut it to 3, and another Steed steal and subsequent layup made it a 47-46 game and ignited the crowd at MiraCosta College.

With the Cougars running a tight 6-man rotation, it would have been understandable if the pace had slowed down in the second half.  But CSUSM showed little sign of fatigue, continuing to battle back even when Concordia extended its lead to 9 points at the 14:35 mark.

Down 73-65 at 12:25, the Cougars launched into a 10-2 run, capped off by a Danny Redmon steal and layup that gave CSUSM its first lead of the night, 76-75.  With the student section rocking, the teams traded baskets over a five-minute span, resulting in an 81-81 tie with 4:27 left in the contest.

Concordia would prevail in the end primarily for two reasons.  First, senior shooting guard #14 Austin Simon knocked down a series of tough, acrobatic shots against tight defense.  Simon finished the game with a team-high 21 points on 9-for-17 shooting.  And the Eagles enjoyed a 31-22 free throw edge, and knocked down 74% of their attempts  compared to just 50% for CSUSM.

Aside from the team's predictable struggles from the line, the Cougars shot the ball extremely well overall, due largely to their ability to consistently penetrate into the paint and finish at the rim.  CSUSM had an assortment of highlight-reel dunks, including particularly vicious throw-downs from Tim Steed and Alpha Ndiaye, and shot 51.4% from the field on the night.

Steed led the Cougars with 22 points and 11 boards on the day, shooting 9-for-16 from the field.  Jacob Ranger scored 18 points before fouling out, including knocking down 3 of his 4 attempts from three point range.  Ndiaye was a force on defense and effective on offense, scoring 12 points on 5-for-7 and grabbing 5 rebounds.  A.J. Chamberlain scored 11 points and 10 rebounds, but his real impact came on defense in the form of 5 blocked shots.  Point guard Danny Redmon nearly recorded the program's first-ever triple, scoring 15 points on 7-for-12 shooting to go along with 10 assists and 8 steals.  Jamel McGuire added 10 points and 6 rebounds.

Moral victories don't count for much, but when coupled with the team's win over #2 Mountain State, CSUSM has proved it can play with the very best in the NAIA.  The Cougars will be traveling to UNLV for a high-profile exhibition game against the Running Rebels on Wednesday night, then in action at home again this Saturday at 4:00 PM against #10 Azusa Pacific.