ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia Golden Bears men's basketball team (5-19, 4-14 NSIC) returns to Gangelhoff Center this weekend for their final two home games of the season with Winona State (16-8, 11-7 NSIC) and Upper Iowa (14-13, 7-11 NSIC) coming to town.

LAST TIME OUT
The Golden Bears bounced back from a Friday night loss at SCSU with a dramatic comeback win in overtime at UMD to pick up the weekend split.

In that win, Concordia erased a 16 point second half deficit to tie it up in the final minute of the game before pulling away in overtime to claim the win. CSP outrebounded their opponents 70-58, including 17-12 on the offensive glass, to help overcome a 36-19 deficit in turnovers on the weekend/ Offense was the story of the weekend as Concordia connected on a solid 48.1% (51-106) while their opponents hit 49.6% (59-119) in the two games.

Avan Ward became the first Concordia player to surpass 30 points in a game since the 2012-13 season as he put up a career-best 33 points in the overtime win over Minnesota Duluth. Bryndan Matthews nearly joined him in reaching 30 with 28 points in the win as he averaged 18.5 points, 4.5 boards and 2.5 steals on the weekend. Evan Wesenberg hit double figures both nights as he contributed 10.5 points and 8.5 rebounds in 26.5 minutes a night.

WSU SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears head into Friday's meeting with Winona State with a record of 6-44 against the Warriors. Amazingly, WSU won the first 31 meetings from 1986-2008 before CSP registered their first win in the series. Despite the overall record, Concordia has been successful against the Warriors in the past few years with three wins in the past six and four in the past 10 meetings. In 20 meetings in St. Paul, CSP is 2-18.

LAST MEETING VS WSU
In the meeting in Winona back on Dec. 9, Concordia opened up an early nine point lead and led for a majority of the first half before host Winona State (5-4, 2-3 NSIC) went on a late first half run and never looked back to top CSP 77-59.

After WSU made the game's first basket, Concordia held the lead for the next 15 and a half minutes of play.

But the Warriors closed out the half on a 15-3 run to claim a 37-29 lead at the break and added a three-pointer early in the second half as part of an 18-3 overall run that pushed the margin into double-figures for the first time.

The Golden Bears wouldn't lead again and were only able to get the margin back to single digits four more times and never closer than eight while WSU led by as many as 18 points late in the contest.
 
The Golden Bears shot a strong 50.0 percent (13-26) from the field in the second half but weren't able to slow down the Warrior offense on their homecourt as WSU shot 72.7 percent (16-22) after the break.

Bryndan Matthews led CSP with 16 points and eight rebounds, adding a pair of assists. He was perfect in six trips to the stripe and didn't commit a turnover in 38 minutes.

Ted Brown was efficient from the floor, making 6-of-7 for 12 points and seven rebounds, adding two blocked shots.

ABOUT THE WARRIORS
One of the hottest teams in the NSIC, Winona State has rattled off eight wins in their past 10 contests to bump their conference record up to 11-7 and their overall record up to 16-8. WSU has been something of a streaky team this year with four different winning streaks of at least three along with a losing streak of three as well.

On Saturday night, Northern State snapped the Warriors' four-game winning streak in a dominant 82-64 showing. The Wolves showcased their NSIC-leading shooting ability in the first half, shooting 51 percent from the field, including an 8-for-14 effort from downtown, to carry a 46-28 advantage into the break. Northern finished the game shooting 48 percent with a 47 percent clip from beyond the arc.

It's been an extremely balanced offensive attack this season for Winona State with four players averaging between 10.0 and 12.6 points per game. Leading the way is Tommy Gathje with 12.6 points on 53.8% from the floor while Corey Jeffs follows close behind with 12.3 points and 5.3 boards. Caleb Wagner registers in at 12.0 points and a team-high 4.7 assists per game.

UIU SERIES HISTORY
Heading into Saturday's matchup, the Golden Bears hold a record of 14-14 against the Peacocks. CSP has found most of their success against UIU in Fayette as they have won nine of 14 meetings there, including five of the last eight. On their home court, the Golden Bears have gone 5-7 against the Peacocks. Concordia's best stretch in the series came from 2004-12 with a record of 11-3 during that span. Since December 2014, Upper Iowa has gone 6-1 in the series.

LAST MEETING VS UIU
Back on Dec. 8 in the first meeting this season, the Golden Bears made nearly twice as many shots as Upper Iowa in the second half on Friday night, trimming a 23-point deficit to just four before falling short 85-75 in the end at Dorman Gymnasium.

The Golden Bears fell behind 53-30 early in the second half with 18:19 to play as the Peacocks used a 17-4 surge late in the first half and early in the second. Still down 18 midway through the half, Concordia turned the tables on a momentum dunk by Evan Wesenberg on a feed from Bryndan Matthews. The Matthews to Wesenberg dunk started a 14-0 run over another strong four minute stretch of basketball that trimmed the UIU lead to 68-64 with 6:15 to play in the contest.

It was fitting that it was the Wesenberg-Matthews duo teamed up on the game's biggest momentum play for Concordia. Wesenberg was 7-8 from the floor for 18 points in an efficient performance in 15 minutes off the bench. He added five rebounds and was perfect on four foul shots.

Matthews, meanwhile, turned in a strong 20-10 double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds including seven on the offensive glass. He made 6-of-8 at the line and posted a 5-0 assist-turnover ratio.

ABOUT THE PEACOCKS
A recent strong surge has pushed the Peacocks back up over .500 on the season as their record sits at 14-13 over and 7-11 in league play. Upper Iowa dropped of their the first 13 NSIC contests, but has bounced back to win four of their last five, including three on the road.

Last weekend, UIU stormed back in the second half of Saturday's matchup with MSU Moorhed to claim a weekend split. Upper Iowa trailed by 10 points at halftime to the Dragons of Minnesota State University Moorhead, but responded by scoring a season-high 58 points in the second half on a remarkable 71% shooting. UIU quickly grabbed the lead and extended it out to a 13-point victory, 91-78. a Saturday, with five players finishing in double figures. Senior Carson Parker notched his ninth 20-point game of the season, hitting it right on the nose on an extremely efficient 7-9 shooting from the field

Parker has led the squad throughout the season with a team-best 16.4 points per game to go along with a solid 6.0 rebounds, 5.6 assists and 1.0 steals as an all-around producer. He's one of four to average double figures as Joe Smoldt, Dennis Austin III and Kam Rowan have all registered at least 11.0 points per night. Munachiso Okonkwo nearly makes it five in double digits with 9.1 points per game while also adding a team-high 6.7 boards and 1.7 blocks per game.

NSIC LEADERS
So far this season, the Golden Bears have had several players rank near the top of the league in different statistical categories.

Bryndan Matthews has been impressive filling up the stat sheet as he has put up top-15 numbers in six different categories. Matthews cleaned up the boards at a solid rate as his 7.0 rebounds per game rank seventh in the league (183rd in the nation) while his 2.5 offensive boards per game rank fifth (145th in the nation) as well. The junior has also been the team's go-to scorer as his 17.3 points per game rank seventh while he also ranks third in minutes per game (35.5).

In addition, Ted Brown ranks inside the top-15 in a few categories with his 63.8% shooting percentage (third) and 1.7 offensive rebounds per game (15th) while Avan Ward registers in at fifth in threes made per game with 2.4 and Evan Wesenberg ranks 12th with 0.8 blocks per game.

CLIMBING THE RANKS
Junior Bryndan Matthews has been a major contributor throughout his three seasons on campus and has started to climb the career ranks at Concordia. The Eagan native is up to 12th in scoring (1,191), sixth in rebounds (552), fourth in rebounds per game (6.7), seventh in free throws made (273) and eighth in field goals made (433) in his career at CSP.