Hamline topped the Concordia-Moorhead Cobbers Tuesday night by a final score of 73–55. Utilizing a starting five of Wherley, McCarrell, Ebel, Cimperman, and Holt, the Pipers dominated on all phases of the game, capitalizing on costly Cobber turnovers and mistakes to cash in big time, resulting in 11 points on turnovers for the Pipers. Historic Hutton Arena hosted the postseason tilt on Feb. 20.
The scoring started with a Brenden Ebel fade away two points and from there the Pipers took off. What followed for the next 8 minutes was a nail-biting back and forth contest. Up only one point with 12 minutes left in the first, junior big man Austin Holt would hit a layup that would spark a 27–14 run that would take them to the break. The sharpshooting and clean moves in the first half were capped off by a clean Eurostepmove by junior guard Daniel McCarrell. Going into the halftime break, the Pipers led 40–26 with McCarrell reaching 16 points following the first half.Although the second half started with an immediate Cobber turnover, they still managed an 8–2 run over the first five minutes. Immediately after this, the Pipers would kick it back into high gear with two long three pointers by Holt. Two more Pipers finished the game with double digit points alongside McCarrell: Bradley Cimperman and Holt.
Throughout the contest, the Pipers pounded the paint, scoring 30 of their 73 points from inside the paint. Along with that, the bench played a big role in the victory, dishing out 19 points to the Cobbers’ nine.
The season will continue on Thursday as HU travels up to St. John’s to take on the top seeded Johnnies in the semi-finals at 7:00 p.m.