HUNTINGTON – A first-quarter deficit got the Concordia boys basketball team down early, but it wasn't something the Cadets couldn't overcome in a 68-63 overtime win against Andrean in a Class 3A semistate Saturday.
Concordia fell behind 13-4 in the first quarter at Huntington North, but rallied and eventually got the lead, 19-17, in the second.
"That first few minutes, they punched us right in the mouth," said junior D.J. McCall, who led the Cadets with 20 points. "From right there, the question to us was whether we were going to let this game get out of hand or are we going to fight back?"
Then, the 59ers outscored Cadets 17-5 in the third and led by eight, 50-42, midway through the fourth.
Again, Concordia rallied and won the game in overtime, advancing to the school's first-ever boys basketball state finals next Saturday.
The 59ers shot 22 of 43 (51 percent) from the field, including 10 of 17 (59 percent) in the first half but also committed 19 turnovers.
Concordia did it on defense by constantly switching from man-to-man to zone to a trap.
"That's amazing because that's was one of the strengths we put on their scouting report that they were such a great ball-control team," Concordia coach Josh Eggold said. "We wanted to keep them off stride a little bit."

