CU Finally Gets Owls, But Corban Can’t Keep Up

After all the hype about an important weekend, the Men’s team couldn’t deliver—at least on Friday night. The Owl’s played Concordia University, which if you remember from before almost beat OIT earlier in the season. The only reason OIT won was from the spectacular display of talent from senior Ryan Fiegi. After that game, you can bet that he was the focus of Concordia’s defense in the second matchup between the two teams.

They must have done something right, because Fiegi only shot 4-18 for the entire game. He was 0-6 from beyond the arc and hit two free throws for a total of 10 points, just half of his season average. In fact, Concordia shut down all of the Owl’s leading scorers: Jguwon Hogges averages 10 points per game and scored 5, Josh Wetzler averages 10 and scored 6, and Christian Cavanaugh averages 15 and scored 4. Surprisingly enough, despite the low scoring, the team still shot 41 percent from the floor. The major loss was from 3-point attempts, making just 20 percent, and from the free-throw line, making only 61 percent.

The game was back and forth for the first 20 minutes which made for an exciting game, but after CU’s 1-point half time lead, they refused to lose it. CU stayed ahead of OIT the entire second half, which became really frustrating. CU started to pull away, leading by as much as 10 points, but OIT cut the lead to 1 with about 10 minutes left in the game. Unfortunately they would never be that close again. It was not only frustrating that we could not get ahead, but also because it seemed like the men were not playing together as a team. It seemed as though there could have been a little more unselfish play, and that might have made the difference. When you are on a team that is behind, and the ball is not being shared and those players are not making their shots, you get down and lose faith and confidence.

Maybe the selfish play had something to do with OIT’s national ranking that came out a few days before the game. On February 20, the national ranking put OIT up two spots to number four. I wouldn’t think that the men would get too big of heads over something like that, but it is possible. When people tell them they are that good, to be put at number four, they could start agreeing and thinking that they are REALLY good. This can mess with a team, and it may be just what happened on Friday night. But, whatever it was, it surely didn’t carry over to Saturday night’s game.

For OIT’s senior night, Ryan Fiegi was all smiles. Being the lone senior and having an extensive introduction, Fiegi walked out onto the court, waived, and was accompanied by his family in front of nearly 1500 applauding fans. It was a special night for him and his fans who have watched him devotedly for three years. He is the heart and soul of this years men’s team, and he showed it Saturday night by scoring 25 points and grabbing 11 rebounds.

At first, I thought that the men might struggle like they did the night before. The first 13 minutes or so were back and forth and I was beginning to get a little bit worried. But then the men came out full charge, and in 7 minutes they left the court with an 18 point half-time lead. They didn’t look back the entire second half, always maintaining at least an 18 point lead and finally pounding their way to a 34 point victory. It was a great night to “end” on for Fiegi, although he and everyone else in that gym knew that in no way would it be his last home game. Nonetheless, all the members of the Owl’s community showed their gratitude and undying support for the most popular player on the men’s basketball team.