Concordia university (3-0) picked up a victory in their home opener as they defeated #19 minnesota state university (2-1) 71-65 at the gangelhoff center in st. Paul, minn. The bears were led by a pair of former mavericks as drew shepp (left)scored 15 points while kyle marxhausen (below right) added 14.

concordia jumped out to an early lead in the ballgame as they shut down the mavericks who were 0-9 from the field until luke anderson converted their first field goal at 13:20 to cut the score to 12-8. From their, the mavericks continued to gain momentum, taking their first lead 20-19 before stretching it to 25-20 with 7:32 in the half.

the bears and mavericks traded jabs for the remainder of the half as cu went into halftime trailing 38-34.

the mavericks wasted no time extening the lead in the second half, scoring the first four points in just 50 seconds putting the bears in a 42-34 hole.

but concordia stayed in the game and fought back to force a 47-47 tie with 11:44 remaining. They reclaimed the lead for the first time since the 9:26 mark when chuol chany converted a layup on a pass in the lane from mike cunningham with 11:09 to play.

concordia never trailed again as they converted down the stretch while playing aggressive defense to stifle msu's preseason all-american luke anderson, who finished a paltry 35.0% from the field (7-20) for a game-high 22 points.

the mavericks also got 18 points and 10 rebounds from atila santos but no one else managed over five points for a cold-shooting msu squad.

the concordia defense held minnesota state to just 28.1% (9-32) shooting in the second half and 35.5% (22-62) for the game while the offense connected at a 49.1% (27-55) clip with consistency in each half (48.5% in the first, 50.0% in the second).

defensively, the bears were led by jason birr and cortez forte who were a consistent nuisance to anderson and were a major factor in his poor shooting percentage.

concordia kept with their game plan for the entire 40 minutes as they outscored the mavericks 46-24 in the paint.

consistency has been a major factor in concordia's 3-0 start as six players scored at least seven points while two others added five and four. Cortez forte and marlon walker each finished with eight points while joey peel added seven.

concordia, who has picked up all three wins against regional opponents, will look to match their best start in school history on friday evening when they play their first official road game (2-0 on nuetral courts) at st. Cloud state university at 7 p.m.