Michigan rolls to victory

Associated Press

ANN ARBOR, Mich.

On paper, Monday night’s game between Concordia and Michigan looked up an epic mismatch.

After all, while the teams are located in the same city, the Wolverines play in the Big Ten, while Concordia is in NAIA’s Division II.

Michigan coach John Beilein, though, knew it would be tougher than outsiders expected.

“When I coached in Division II, which is a lot like NAIA, we always had a great game plan and a lot of energy when we got a chance to play a Division I school,” Beilein said. “We knew they were going to give us everything they had.”

Indeed, the Cardinals, who play in the same conference as Michigan’s daughter campus in Dearborn, stayed close to the Wolverines for 30 minutes before Michigan pulled away for a 86-65 victory.

“We always play to win, but we also understood the situation we were in here,” said Concordia coach Ben Limback. “We’ve never played in an arena like this, or in front of a crowd like this. I think we did a great job of giving them a good basketball game.”

Concordia’s leading scorer, Marius Williams, missed all eight of his field-goal attempts, and finished with just two points.

“I told our assistants after the game that we didn’t get anything out of Marius, and we were still close,” Limback said.

“That’s something that gives us a lot of positive energy about the upcoming season.”