CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – The Coe College men's basketball team defeated Wartburg 94-92 in a thrilling overtime contest on Saturday afternoon. Coe and Wartburg traded moments of dominance throughout the game but 40 minutes was not enough to decide the winner. In the overtime period, Coe hit four free throws within the final minute of play which proved to be the difference-maker as Wartburg's last-ditch attempt to win the game came up short. The victory moves Coe to 9-7 overall and 4-3 in the league while Wartburg drops to 7-9 and 3-4 in the A-R-C.
Tommy Hook paced the Kohawks, scoring 21 points while grabbing two boards and dishing out one assist.
Jacob Robertson (17 points & nine rebounds),
Josh Schmitt (15 points, eight dimes, two boards and two steals),
TJ Kaufmann (11 points, two assists & one board),
Adam McDermott (11 points, two boards, two assists and one steal) and
Jarad Kruse (nine points & two boards) all provided solid contributions for the Kohawks. Despite recording just three points,
Austin Roth pulled down four boards while adding four blocks and three assists.
Both teams were gassed in the overtime period as they traded blows for the first two minutes but Robertson hit a 3 to give the Kohawks an 87-85 lead with 3:11 left in OT. The Knights refused to falter, scoring seven of the next ten points to regain a slim lead a 92-90 with just over one minute to play. Coe then ended the game on a 4-0 run, highlighted by its defense which held the Knights scoreless for the final minute of action to lock up the victory.
Coe opened the game with a 5-0 run thanks to back-to-back baskets from McDermott and Robertson but the Knights answered right back with a 6-2 stretch to cut the deficit to just one point with 17:47 left in the half. The Kohawks continued to fire offensively, ripping off an 8-0 spurt and extending their lead to 15-6. During the stretch, McDermott added another bucket while Hook scored six-straight points to cap the run including four consecutive free throws.
Wartburg finally began to slow the Kohawks at the 15-minute mark, holding them scoreless for a nearly four-minute stretch during which the Knights scored 15 points to take their first lead of the game. The run featured three buckets from Davis Roquet and three 3s, two of which came from Jack Molstead. Trailing by six, Coe went to its bench and got solid production from
Kaufmann
who engineered a 7-0 stretch, picking up an assist while converting a layup and one long ball.
The squads would trade buckets for the next 7:22 of the first half, with neither team taking a lead larger than five points. Coe got a late push just before the halftime break behind a 5-2 run that featured five free throws from McDermott (3) and
Sam Auen (2) which extended the lead to six points after one half.
Wartburg was dominant in the opening nine minutes of the second half, outscoring Coe 25-16 during the stretch to flip the script and the score as the Knights led 64-61 with 10:48 left in the game. The teams would again trade blows for a majority of the final few minutes of the game but the Kohawks used a 9-2 run, which was capped by a Schmitt 3 which put Coe ahead 80-77 with just over a minute to play. Wartburg controlled possession with just over a minute and tied the game on a 3 from Jack Molstead which ended the scoring in regulation.
Up Next: The Kohawks will be back in action on Wednesday when they host Loras College at 7:30 p.m. inside the A-R-C.
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