MOORHEAD, Minn. – The eighth-seeded Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (6-24) pulled off the dramatic upset with an 86-78 comeback victory over top-seeded #19 MSU Moorhead (24-5) on Wednesday night.
 
The Golden Bears picked up their fourth win in 17 tries in the NSIC Tournament as they advance to take on fourth-seeded Minnesota State in the quarterfinals at Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D. on Sunday at noon. CSP has now gone 2-10 in road games in tournament history and 12-19 all-time against the Dragons. The win sets up a chance for Concordia to grab their first ever victory in the second round of the tournament. In addition, the win was CSP's first win on the road this season.
 
Concordia's defense came through in a big way as they held the league-leading offense to over 11 points below their season average of 89.4. CSP also held the Dragons to 43.1% (25-58) from the floor and 24.0% (6-25) from deep, well below their marks of 51.4% from the floor and 41.2% from three on the season.
 
The offense was nearly as impressive as they knocked down 47.5% (29-61) of their shots to go along with 38.9% (7-18) from beyond the arc, both above their season averages. In addition, the bench play was heavily skewed in favor of the Golden Bears as over half of their points on the night (46) came from their three bench players while MSU Moorhead scored 26 with their non-starters.
 
Both of CSP's leading scorers came from outside the starting five as Diallo Powell led all scorers with 23 points while Brandon McRoy contributed a career-high 19 points in the win. Powell hit a perfect 10-10 from the free throw line while Brandon McRoy hit 7-13 from the floor and chipped in five boards.
 
It was also another productive night for Bryndan Matthews as he put up 16 points on an extremely efficient 7-9 shooting and 2-3 from deep to go along with seven rebounds and three steals. Ted Brown gave the Golden Bears four players in double figures in scoring as he added 10 points and seven boards.
 
Ayob Ayob led the way in a losing effort for the Dragon as his 20 points and 13 rebounds gave him a double-double on the night. Aaron Lien also added a double-double with 15 points and 10 boards while Tanner Kretchman scored 14 and dished out six assists.
 
MSU Moorhead put CSP in a deep hole early as they scored 13 of the first 15 and 18 of the first 22, but the Golden Bears eventually worked their way back in it. Concordia answered back with an 11-4 run to chip it to down seven midway through the opening half before another run went in favor of MSUM. The lead reached the largest point of the night at 18 at 33-15 with 4:34 to play before the break, but once again a CSP run closed the gap as they put together a 13-5 burst to bring it to 38-28 at the half.
 
Concordia's momentum carried over into the second half as they quickly closed the gap to four at 41-37. The Dragons temporarily pushed it back to nine at 48-39 with 14:34 before CSP slowly began to chip away. With the lead still at five at 60-55, the Golden Bears scored seven of the next eight points to take their first lead of the night at 62-61 with 7:35 left on the clock. The two teams traded buckets over the next few minutes before Max Keefe buried a huge three to give Concordia the lead for good at 67-65 with 5:33 to go.
 
While both teams finished nearly identical from the free throw line on the night, free throws played a key role in the final few minutes as CSP hit 16-17 before the final moments while MSUM had a stretch where they hit 5-11 with two misses on front ends of one-and-ones. The Golden Bears capitalized on nearly all of their opportunities down the stretch as they held off the high-powered Dragons offense. The lead hit five at 72-67 at the 2:55 mark for Concordia as the team gave MSUM just one more possession within three or less with the ball. The lead hit seven with under a minute to play before finally settling with their largest lead of the night with a final score of 86-78.